March 25, 2025 • 34 mins
ICYMI: Hour One of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – A look at the rise of “master key” postal fraud in SoCal…PLUS - ‘23 and Me’ has filed for bankruptcy AND Macy’s has confirmed that it is closing its iconic stores across the US – on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's good to be back, k IF.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I am six forty years later with Mo Kelly live
everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. And look at all that
glorious sunlight. It is still light outside. I can't get
used to it. I thoroughly enjoy being able to start
this show and have the sun setting in the background.
It was a nice drive in today because it was
nice and bright. People were not rush trying to get home.
(00:45):
And actually I was a little bit late trying to
get to the studio. Didn't get to the studio til
about five o'clock, which is really late for me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I was in the thick of it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But it wasn't that bad, and I wanted to a
tribute it to They're still being light out, not everyone
was trying to rush to get home. It's good to
see you again, Mark Roner. Howre you doing, sir? Welcome back, Mo.
I'm anxious to hear about your morning experience last week.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Oh it was horrible. No no, no, no, no, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Look, if you didn't know, or if you don't remember,
I was filling in for Bill Handle who was away
getting married congratulations Bill in Italy, which meant that I
had to come in for the Thursday and Friday last week,
and I would get to the studio at around four
forty five, which meant I would leave my house at
four am.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I am a night person.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I cannot physically make myself go to sleep before midnight,
and it's oftentimes difficult to have my mind shut down.
As it got later and later Wednesday night, Thursday night,
I find myself looking at the watch, looking at the clocks.
They're like, oh my gosh, well I'm gonna get three
(01:54):
hours sleep. Oh my gosh, I'll only get two hours
of sleep. Oh I hate that, and it gets it's
almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. The more you think
about it, the less sleep you're going to get. As
it turned out Thursday night to Friday morning, I didn't
get to sleep until I want to say, one forty
five was the last time I remember seeing the clock.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So you were just wrecked by Friday night? Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, got up at four.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I assume I got to sleep around two ish, came home,
took a nap. But then when I finally got home
and got finished with all the things I needed to
do for my day on Friday, I got into bed
around nine o'clock and didn't wake up until almost like
eight o'clock the next morning, just to recalibrate.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, you got to catch up on your sleep. You
couldn't pay me to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They say you scientifically cannot catch up, But as far
as my body is concerned, it caught up.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, if you're tired. Yeah, I do that all the time.
And I was probably still awake when you left for
work both of those days.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh my gosh. And it reminded me I will never
be a morning person. And I salute those who are.
It's just something that is physically unpleasant and really undesirable
for me to do consistently.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Don't salute them, mock them, denigrate them.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, no, no, I think you have to be a
special type of person to be able to get up
in the middle of the night to go to work
and also be coherent and productive.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Special is one way to put it.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Okay, all right, with all the unintended mocker reinvolved, right,
Oh it's intended.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh, it's intended. Okay, got it. Well, since we are back,
let's get to real business.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I'm just telling you right now, my final thought
is going to be about the text thread from classified Hell.
I'm just letting you know, as long as I've been
on this earth, you think after a certain point you've
seen everything, You've experienced everything, there's a a point of
reference to everything. And then there are days like today
(03:48):
when you have the Vice president and five other different
cabinet members on a text thread talking about a military
operation with all sort of it's specifics. It's incredible. And
to see it in print, it's not like we're talking
about it in the abstract. You could open up any
major news source and look at it. Emojis and all.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
This is massive news. You cannot minimize this, not at all.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I'm gonna save it for my final thought. Also, we
have to talk about this postal fraud which is on
the rise in West Hollywood. You have this master key
which is being used. I can actually relate it to
some experience I have when I was on a federal
grand jury and most of our cases honestly were postal fraud,
(04:35):
which is a federal offense, and people using master keys.
I can give you some insight on that. We'll talk
about that next segment. And I always wanted to know
in a DNA sense, where all my people were from
you know, twenty three and meters And I was told
time and time again, you know, MO is probably not
a good idea for you to give your information, your data,
(04:56):
your DNA to that company because you just don't know
what will happen at a company or your DNA, your
daddy information. Sure enough, twenty three and meters Gonzo, and
we'll tell you about why you won't be able to
get into your DNA or your information back.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It's gone and end of an era. Macy confirms.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Macy's confirms closure of an iconic store and sets liquidation date.
And honestly, that might be the future of most of
these big box retailers. And I'm just so glad to
be back with you guys. You know, well at least Twalla.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No no, I get separation anxiety and abandonment issues very easily.
So I'm glad you're back. That's that's why you have
like you're a cat lover. I almost showed up at
your place.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, I wasn't home, most likely, and if I was,
I was asleep.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh that might have been awkward, but I almost did it. Anyway,
It is good to be back, and we're in the groove.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We're going to talk about master key postal fraud on
the rise in West Hollywood, specifically when we come back.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Wait a bitte, Let me ask real quick, what did
y'all guys do this weekend?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Anyone got some rest, had a people cocktails, took the
Long Suffering One out for dinner, and watched some terrific movies.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Wait a minute, did you go to the movies? You
just stayed in and watch the movies? I stayed in.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Okay, I watched the original Lost Horizon from nineteen thirty seven,
and it's maybe the greatest adventure film of all time,
maybe one of the greatest movies ever made. Did the
Long Suffering One appreciate that she was asleep when I
put it on? But I insisted the next day that
she watched it and started texting all my friends you
gotta see this.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So it wasn't for her benefit, It was only for
your benefit. Wow, we don't keep the same hour as
much like you and your long Suffering one.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Okay, Stephan, what about you? What did you do?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Just a lot of ubring ubering. Oh you were sleep
Oh yeah, as usual? Okay, like you never not stopped,
never not working. Yeah, Oh I had a day to day.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Ooh, Saturday slept, Sunday sleep, that's a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Sometimes I wish I could have I wish I could
have done that. Like today, right before we go to
this break, my day started I don't know, nine or
ten o'clock preparing for my TV interview at Spectrum, which
is at noon. Then I had an hour long podcast
with Megan McCain for her show, and that's like from
two o'clock un til three o'clock, and then I walked
(07:21):
the dogs, and then I immediately got in the car
and got into traffic and finally got here and we
do this show from seven to ten and then at
eleven forty five tonight have a BBC interview, Mark, what
do you think the topic is going to be?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well, let me just roll the dice here.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I assume it's going to be the thing that absolutely
everybody on the planet is talking about and has been
all day, and that's been causing a five alarm fire,
which is that security breach through the signal app It's
one of the biggest stories in the world bar none.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And it may only be at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Oh, this is only what we know. Yeah, it could
be the tip of the iceberg, and it's a massive story.
We'll always talk about the roach theory. This is a
perfect example of the roach theory.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You think, this is the only time that they were,
you know, doing their thing on signal, talking about all
this classified information.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
This is the only time, this one time, No way
in hell.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And there was a story in the Kate t La
might have seen the news video of it where they
actually actually have video of the thieves, I would say,
ransacking these post office boxes at a.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Number of apartments in West Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
There's video surveillance that captured multiple male thefts in action,
usually between two and six in the morning, at buildings
along King's Road. And you may not know about this,
or you may ask the question, how is this even possible?
Some years ago, I was on a federal grand jury
for about four months. We would hear cases once a
(09:02):
week on Tuesdays, and the one that we heard the
most usually had to do with mail fraud or identification
theft and mail fraud stealing people's mail and then stealing
their identities or some combination of both, and It usually
happened the same way. There would be these these master
(09:25):
mailbox keys which would be used, and they would run
in through everyone's boxes and take whatever they thought might
have something valuable in terms of information or credit cards
or documentation, and people would always ask the same question,
how is it they would get these master keys?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
More times than not it was an inside job.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Someone who worked at the post office or who had
access to a master key would then sell the key,
or they would make copies and sell the copies because
they're not difficult to copy. And then all of a sudden,
you have these rashal thefts at various mailboxes and they
would either split the profits or have some sort of deal,
(10:07):
and then we'd have postal inspectors come in and testify
how much evidence or at some level of evidence to
prove at least the not beyond reasonable doubt, but there
was enough evidence for a true bill that they would
they indict the person. And it's something that you would
see frequently frequently, and to see this shows once again
(10:31):
it's the same game over and over and over again,
where usually it is someone who either works at the
post office or has access to the keys and then
is selling them, and they're not difficult to duplicate.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Now correct me if you're wrong, but you can get
twenty something years if caught. And these individuals are showing
their faces on camera.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
No one said that they were smart. I mean, you know,
maybe they don't know that it's a federal offense and
punishable by up to like twenty years in prison, federal prison,
and maybe they just don't know how dumb they are.
But yeah, it's a serious offense. In the offense, and
it's actually a common offense because it leads to other
crimes because not only are you trying to steal what
(11:14):
is in the mailbox, you're trying to steal the data
which is contained the credit cards. And then maybe they
will resell the credit card numbers something we also saw
they would sell the credit card numbers.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
On the cases that you were on or that you
were privy to. Did you see any any cases where
say maybe a postal officer was say robbed of the key.
Did it always appear to be an inside job or
was there anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Now it was that's the story that the employee would
tell that the key was robbed to absolve them of responsibility,
like as if they didn't do anything untoward or they
had nothing to do with how the keys here to
ended up in someone else's hands, and then they eventually
get arrested later because we were also shown emails and
(12:06):
other types of communication where they linked it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Wow, you know when I say dumb ass thieves, you
will probably find out, if I'm gonna make any prediction,
you will find out that these thieves have some sort
of connection to some postal employee and they're all in
this together. I'd bet dollars to donuts You're not just
gonna happen across the mailbox key.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I believe that all thefts of this nature, and this
is something Mark and I have in common, that both
of us have had our storage units broken into, and
I am willing to bet everything that in both instances
it's an inside job because you do not have places
that are secured and have cameras that all all of
(12:52):
a sudden, either the cameras aren't working or the cameras
in that area are working, and all of our stuff
gets taken.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's always an inside job. I can promise you. I
would bet everything I have just from what I've seen.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
In all the cases that I was on, it's an
inside job and they will connect these fools to someone
who works at the post office, and you it'll probably
be charged with other things because it's never just the
postal theft. It's usually connected to some other form of fraud,
like identity theft or the credit card numbers that they'll
(13:26):
sell to a number uh a third party, and it's
all connected, and you'll find like there's a ring of
maybe five or six people, and this postal employee might
be working with a different posted employee who works at
a different post office, and it's usually an elaborate ring.
I would not be surprised if they're let's say, five
(13:46):
or six other people connected to this beyond the two
who are just ransacking post office boxes.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Where were we gonna say, Mark, Well, you've mentioned before
how you think like a criminal, and I do too.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Maybe it's our upbringing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, seriously, but I've always wondered why more people haven't
gotten onto the postal skeleton key thing, and I was
grateful they didn't, because having been a crime reporter off
and on over the years, I found that a lot
of the times criminals aren't very bright and they're kind
of lazy. But the ones who have been at it
for a while, especially in other countries, have some very
clever scams, and the further we fall into economic hard times,
(14:21):
the more clever the thefts are going to be.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
This is not one of them. Unfortunately, this is not
the clever theft.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
This is the garden variety dumbass thief didn't really think
it through. Because you can see their faces clearly, it
won't be long before they find out who these individuals are. Why,
because they keep coming back to the same location again
and again, so they will have multiple videos of these individuals.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They'll find out who they are.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They'll start looking through their social media, they'll start looking
through their private communications, they'll get their phones, and it
will tie back to someone connected to that law post office.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
The other thing that people should know is that it's
not like TV where the cops instantly dispatch a special
forces group to find the people who are stealing your stuff.
A lot of the times they'll take a report and
that's the last year ever going to hear about it, okay,
until someone is indicted.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
In other words, this will be a part of what
they call an investigatory federal grand jury, and they will
follow this investigation probably for weeks. They'll have the same
grand jury members, about twenty of them, who will.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Hear this case.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They'll hear the various levels of evidence against the people
who are involved, and then at the end of that,
when they have an indictment, then a public arrest will
be made and you will find out the scope of
the investigation and the people involved. So, although the story
says no arrests have been reported as of Sunday evening,
(15:55):
they're probably already hot on the trail of who these
individuals are and they're trying to see the bigger picture
of who else is involved. It's not about who used
a key, but who gave them the key or who
gave them copies of the key.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, and the more you publicize it, like the way
we're talking about it right now, the more pressure is
on the officials to follow through on it. Because a
lot of the time, you know, cops aren't like you
see in the movies with some haunted, obsessed person making
it their life's mission to recover the stuff you got
stolen off of your porch or out of your mailbox.
They're too busy. They don't have time. They don't have
(16:30):
to close out all their cases. It's if there's not
an immediate solution to it, it's done.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And also this is immediately handed over to the Postal
Inspectors Federal. I didn't know until I did the federal
grand jury that the Postal Office has their own police
and investigative portion of the post office.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But there have been movies about postal police. I think
Alan Ladd was in one of them. But you don't
see a lot about it these days though.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So if you want the LA Sheriff's Department or LAPD
to handle it, wrong folks, you're calling them wrong people.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, the punisher's not going to get on it for
you either. Really, you've got to be your own best advocate.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I do know one place that there are probably going
to start, and that's amongst the ten thousand USPS postal
workers who have been cut as of last week through
voluntary early retirement.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's a distinct possibility to say, yeah, yeah, I don't
know how they happened to get that key.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I was fired last week. I don't know. Not my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yes, it's a service that is of value to all Americans.
That's spelled out in the Constitution. Let's cut that to
the bone. Who's that going to help? Great point?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
It's Later with mo Kelly I AM six forty one
Live Everywhere, the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I would understand if you want to know, Hey, what
is my ancestry in a DNA sense? You know, at
my twenty three percent this I was always told that
I was Irish de san. I wonder if it's Irish
or if it's maybe British or something like that.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I get it. We're all curious and popular.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
DNA testing from twenty three and me allowed people to
find out more about their history. I don't know how
accurate it was. I really don't know. For all I know,
they probably took your basic information and put it in
some machine and it just spit out something with meant
nothing about nothing. I don't know, but a lot of
people evidently not enough, but a lot of people did
(18:37):
like using the service at twenty three meters. You may
not remember exactly how it marketed itself. Let me refresh
your memory.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
You're here to understand what twenty three in me is
all about, right? And how does it work?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
What does DNA even stand for?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Anyway?
Speaker 6 (18:53):
DNA stands for deoxy ribo nucleic acid. I knew that
you most definitely did not. Our DNA is organized into
twenty three pairs of chromosomes, and it can tell you
a lot about what makes you you. There are two
twenty three and me services that can help you explore
your DNA, one that focuses on ancestry, one that adds
in health and trades.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Think about how much information you're given for that.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
With twenty three and me you can discover where in
the world your DNA comes from. You can even learn
how you are connected to others by opting into twenty
three and me's DNA Relatives feature.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Think about out all that information you're.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
Given and connecting with people who share DNA with you.
There are fascinating insights about your traits to explore. Wow,
you can learn how genetics might influence your risk for
certain diseases. But remember other factors such as lifestyle and
environment are important too.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Who do you think would want that information? Big Pharma?
Speaker 6 (19:48):
Probably if you choose to. You can opt in to
receive genetic health risk reports like Parkinson's disease and lead
on to at Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Free there you go.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It gives you a general idea about twenty three and me,
the type of information that it would collect from you
and anyone else, and how that is put into a
huge database connecting you to other people who may be relatives. Also,
you can be put on a list of people who
have certain traits. You might have certain traits like sickle
cell anemia, or you might be predisposed to or genetically
(20:23):
more likely to suffer from certain diseases or ailments. That
type of information would be worth a lot of money.
Don't ask me to put an actual price on it,
but would be very, very valuable.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And to that end.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Since twenty three and meters is going out of business,
it said in a press release that it plans to
continue operating throughout the sale process and there are no
changes to the way the company stores, manages, or protects
customer data.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Okay, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Attorney General Rob BoNT at California Attorney Generals is advising
people who have submitted their DNA to twenty three meters
to invoke their state right to privacy and request that
the company delete their genetic information. One when you have
to make a request, that's different from a demand. And
if you make a request, that says to me that
(21:14):
they can say no, they have the latitude not to
do it. But I'm sure in the paperwork that you
might have signed in giving away your data and your
genealogy information, there is probably an air tight agreement where
twenty three ande meters retains all rights to keep your
data information in perpetuity and probably can sell it.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
That's one of those ones. Unlike your Apple agreement. You
want to read all the fine print.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, there's probably nothing you can do at this point
because they're in bankruptcy. There only then responsibility or motivation
is to sell that data to pay off its creditors.
That's all they have to bargain with. And it has
great value to somebody, some pharmaceutical, bio mechanical, medical, insurance,
(22:03):
all of that. Someone will buy that information and they
would rather sell it than delete it.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
This is dystopian because we're not too far away from
insurance companies having access to all of your information and
charging you more based on what your DNA says.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Remember when people were just afraid of their social Security
number getting out there.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, good old days yet.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, now everything, and I always live under the expectation
that all my information and data is already out there
on the dark web somewhere. My medical information, my personal information, everything,
my educational information, anything that might have value in some
database exists out there on the dark web.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So, look, you have a family history of, say, prostate cancer,
I guess you have to pay more to be covered
for that, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Probably, especially if it is devouls or disclosed to insurance providers.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, it's a pretty straight line. You don't have to
get into some far reaching sci fi scenario to imagine
that happening.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
It's right around the corner. Yeah, what do you mean
around the corner. I'm quite sure it's already happened. Well,
I'm an optimist, mo.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
When you consider the fact that Musk and Dog have
been granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems, that
kind of takes us there. I'm just saying, like, we're
there when our information is at the hands or in
the greedy, greasy palms of doge.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All it means is all you need is a party
to have it and the ability to sell it to
someone else.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That's all it is.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It is you know there will be a buyer. I
promise you there will be a buyer. I don't know
if just a request to have your data deleted will
mean anything. I think of it as almost like deleting
text messages off your phone. Yeah you can do that,
but it doesn't delete the record of the text message.
No pun intended, as we will talk about that later
(24:07):
on tonight. With you know, classified information and signal.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Information will always exist no matter where you delete it.
And this is disappointing because now I don't get to
find out the truth about being half black.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You'll just have to know in your heart or your loins.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I'd never done the twenty three and me before because
when it first came out, I thought maybe it was
one of those dirty movies that sounds like the title
of one of.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Those what black halfway down? Twenty three and me, Oh
well that too. Going back to the story, it's explicit
it's unclear what will happen to the DNA data of
its fifteen million customers if the firm shuts down. No,
it is clear it will be sold and it will
be purchased. We just don't know who will purchase it.
(24:51):
That is the only unknown variable because if you're going
through bankruptcy, you got creditors and you got to pay
a portion of the of what you oh somehow with
whatever assets you have to pay them off. Data is
their biggest, most valuable asset. Means they're going to sell it, period,
point blank. In a story, Stephand, I'm sorry you should
(25:13):
not have given your information.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I warned you. I warned you, I told you not to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
But do you feel better now now that you know
you're seventy five percent Akadinian?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, It's Later a bo Kelly KFI six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and Macy's.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
We might be coming to an end of an era.
That's next.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty when moo Kelly on k.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Six Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And my years
of writing are written for a number of places over
the years, I was always taught and Mark, tell me
if you agree or disagree with this. Now, there's times
I was providing content and I was not the headline writer.
But whenever a headline was written for me. I would
(26:11):
cringe every time they tried to put a headline in
the form of a question.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Oh god, right, yeah, it's so lazy. Have an actual headline.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So when I read this story says the end of
an era question mark, that means yes, just skip to
the end. Yes, it's an end of the era for Macy's.
Macy says confirmed closure of iconic store and sets liquidation date.
But don't write a headline with a question rhetorical question mark.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Now, I spent a very roughly half my newspaper career
explaining to readers that I didn't write that dumb headline.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Right, you have the headline writer, and you don't have
a say.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Usually it's usually copy editors or an editor who writes
the headline and not thet I had a review of
a of a Bond movie once and some jerk wrote,
it's double low Heaven. It's like, why don't I just
kill myself right now?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And they always wrongly attribute the headline to the writer.
The piece could be great, but if you have a
crappy headline, it makes the piece look bad.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
And they're uniformly terrible. I mean, these are you've got
to remember that the kind of person who becomes a copywriter.
They might be decent people, but they're not a writer.
They're copywriters because they're not writers. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Macy's has released a list of sixty six stores that
it plans to close, most of which will be closed
this first quarter of twenty twenty five, and by twenty
twenty six, Macy's will be closing around one hundred and
fifty locations in total that are quote unquote underproductive. But
they are going to invest in three hundred and fifty
(27:49):
go forward locations, which I guess are those micro Macy's
which they'll use. I remember growing up on Macy's. Macy's
was the qui essential big box retailer. If you've ever
put it this way, you've never been to a store unless
you went to the Macy's in New York. Well, that's
the closest we had to the big Herods in London.
(28:11):
And by the way, I should point out I misspoke.
I should have said copy editor, not copywriter, whatever, editor whatever.
We strive from accuracy. But the mall O hate them.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, I agree, But yeah, it was the closest we
had to the big like Miracle on thirty fourth Street
type of experience if you've never been, and I haven't
been in years, but when I went many years ago,
the Macy's in New York had a floor for just
women's shoes, had a floor for just.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Min's shoes, had a complete when I say floor, the
size of like Dilamo Mall, Macy's do.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It was huge.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But you're talking about seven eight stories high of just
one store, not six or seven different stores.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
One store.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, these things were kind of the apex of Western culture.
The Russians hated for it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, they should love us now because it's all being
torn down.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I wonder why. That's another conversation.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, but Macy's, when I was growing up, it was
more than just the parade.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It was about the department store.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It was the place where we went to shop, and
to Mark's point, it was a symbol of our capitalism.
We don't use those those giant retailers in the same
way anymore. We would rather, and with good reasons, sit
at home and do that shopping with a few clicks
on the keyboard and get most of the same items.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Now that you're talking about this, it's reminding me of
all these films we saw in history class of Mixon
leading Khrushchev through. It might have been a Macy's, I
don't know for sure, but it was a symbol of
Western culture for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The Khrushchev, they're.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Marveling at our at our washers and dryers that we
could have in our homes the future, just prior to
pounding his shoe on the table in the un saying
that he was going to bring him down.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yes, we will bury you, I think was the quote
attributed to him. Huh, But I understand that, you know,
everything has to move on. Nothing's going to stay the same,
and our economy is always evolving. We will not see
this time again of going to the big department store
in the way that we did in the eighties and nineties,
(30:19):
a mall. Shopping malls or a thing of the past.
These big box retailers are a thing of the past.
Now it's Amazon and eBay and these other micro retailers
you can find online. Like for example, I love Nike shoes,
but I don't go to the Nike store. With the
exception of looking online and ordering them and maybe picking
(30:43):
them up from the Nike store, there's really no need
to go to a store to shop for the most
part anymore, I don't have to.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No, and you've got to remember how much you are
paying for their overhead if they've got a physical store
like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Oh, the rent is ridiculous for most of these places, exactly,
And unfortunately Mark, this kind of goes back to our
AI conversation, where businesses are always going to be on
the lookout for ways to minimize their overhead and get
rid of employees. The whole idea of having a store,
a physical brick and mortar location staffed with employees, when
(31:21):
all they really need is a hub to hand out
the stuff that you're buying online for the most part,
like a distribution center.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, it's too bad because I miss interacting with other humans. Oh,
I think that's overrated. I hate people.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I don't disagree with that, But I didn't intend to
spend the second half of my life in complete isolation.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All I know is I would be sad to see
Macy's go, but I understand it. And if you're under
the age of forty, you have no emotional tie to
Macy's other than you might know that's the same name
as the parade.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
That's about it. They were kind of magical places. There
was nothing quite like them in their prime and their heyday.
There's a through line in all this. Macy's also connects
to Toys r Us.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Those stores that we may connect with our childhood or
some sort of nostalgia. They don't have any place in
today's society, not in terms of business, not in terms
of our economy, not in terms of our shopping, our
shopping habits. If we're going to do Christmas shopping, do
we really need to go to the store.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
No, Hopefully we're smart enough to do all this online.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
It's funny yesterday where I was walking through the mall
with my daughter and we saw the Macy's in the
Bourbang mall looked like it was damn near empty. And
I said, dang man, Macy's is going out of business.
And my daughter said, now, what does macy sell again?
What is that's right right next to there? There is
(32:56):
are not far from there is a Forever twenty one
one with big giant signe saying going out of business, liquidation, cell,
everything must go. It's another big retail of this on
his way out. And I'm like, dang a Fashion or
twenty one whatever. And my daughter's like, good riddance. I
don't buy anything for anything I buy is on line.
And see there's a distinction which should be made. Some
(33:19):
people will say, hey, Mason's just going out of business.
It must mean our economy is horrible. No, it just
means our economy is changing. We're spending money, we're just
spending it in a different way like how we spend
our money. As far as the movies are concerned, we're
not necessarily going to the movies, but we're still consuming movies.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
We're still watching movies. We just have alternative ways to
watch the very same movies. We don't need to go
to a physical brick and mortar movie house to watch
as many movies. Now, anything I want to see, if
I'm willing to wait three weeks, I can watch it
home for probably less of a price than if I
were to actually go to the theater and buy two
tickets and two tubs of popcorn and a soda.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Certainly less irritation, oh far less, far less. And then
there's no I can't say that I'll get in trouble. Trouble,
what are you talking about? It? I can't and I
can't say that I can't say that irritation varies by location.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh okay, I tell you life is complicated. It's later
with Mokelly ki If I am six forty. We're live
everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Chock Bullet Stimulating Talk, k f I M, the k
O S T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Live everywhere on the radiop
It's good to be back, k IF.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I am six forty years later with Mo Kelly live
everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. And look at all that
glorious sunlight. It is still light outside. I can't get
used to it. I thoroughly enjoy being able to start
this show and have the sun setting in the background.
It was a nice drive in today because it was
nice and bright. People were not rush trying to get home.
(00:45):
And actually I was a little bit late trying to
get to the studio. Didn't get to the studio til
about five o'clock, which is really late for me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I was in the thick of it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But it wasn't that bad, and I wanted to a
tribute it to They're still being light out, not everyone
was trying to rush to get home. It's good to
see you again, Mark Roner. Howre you doing, sir? Welcome back, Mo.
I'm anxious to hear about your morning experience last week.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Oh it was horrible. No no, no, no, no, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Look, if you didn't know, or if you don't remember,
I was filling in for Bill Handle who was away
getting married congratulations Bill in Italy, which meant that I
had to come in for the Thursday and Friday last week,
and I would get to the studio at around four
forty five, which meant I would leave my house at
four am.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I am a night person.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I cannot physically make myself go to sleep before midnight,
and it's oftentimes difficult to have my mind shut down.
As it got later and later Wednesday night, Thursday night,
I find myself looking at the watch, looking at the clocks.
They're like, oh my gosh, well I'm gonna get three
(01:54):
hours sleep. Oh my gosh, I'll only get two hours
of sleep. Oh I hate that, and it gets it's
almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. The more you think
about it, the less sleep you're going to get. As
it turned out Thursday night to Friday morning, I didn't
get to sleep until I want to say, one forty
five was the last time I remember seeing the clock.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So you were just wrecked by Friday night? Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, got up at four.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I assume I got to sleep around two ish, came home,
took a nap. But then when I finally got home
and got finished with all the things I needed to
do for my day on Friday, I got into bed
around nine o'clock and didn't wake up until almost like
eight o'clock the next morning, just to recalibrate.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, you got to catch up on your sleep. You
couldn't pay me to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
They say you scientifically cannot catch up, But as far
as my body is concerned, it caught up.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, if you're tired. Yeah, I do that all the time.
And I was probably still awake when you left for
work both of those days.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh my gosh. And it reminded me I will never
be a morning person. And I salute those who are.
It's just something that is physically unpleasant and really undesirable
for me to do consistently.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Don't salute them, mock them, denigrate them.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, no, no, I think you have to be a
special type of person to be able to get up
in the middle of the night to go to work
and also be coherent and productive.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Special is one way to put it.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Okay, all right, with all the unintended mocker reinvolved, right,
Oh it's intended.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh, it's intended. Okay, got it. Well, since we are back,
let's get to real business.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I'm just telling you right now, my final thought
is going to be about the text thread from classified Hell.
I'm just letting you know, as long as I've been
on this earth, you think after a certain point you've
seen everything, You've experienced everything, there's a a point of
reference to everything. And then there are days like today
(03:48):
when you have the Vice president and five other different
cabinet members on a text thread talking about a military
operation with all sort of it's specifics. It's incredible. And
to see it in print, it's not like we're talking
about it in the abstract. You could open up any
major news source and look at it. Emojis and all.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
This is massive news. You cannot minimize this, not at all.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I'm gonna save it for my final thought. Also, we
have to talk about this postal fraud which is on
the rise in West Hollywood. You have this master key
which is being used. I can actually relate it to
some experience I have when I was on a federal
grand jury and most of our cases honestly were postal fraud,
(04:35):
which is a federal offense, and people using master keys.
I can give you some insight on that. We'll talk
about that next segment. And I always wanted to know
in a DNA sense, where all my people were from
you know, twenty three and meters And I was told
time and time again, you know, MO is probably not
a good idea for you to give your information, your data,
(04:56):
your DNA to that company because you just don't know
what will happen at a company or your DNA, your
daddy information. Sure enough, twenty three and meters Gonzo, and
we'll tell you about why you won't be able to
get into your DNA or your information back.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It's gone and end of an era. Macy confirms.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Macy's confirms closure of an iconic store and sets liquidation date.
And honestly, that might be the future of most of
these big box retailers. And I'm just so glad to
be back with you guys. You know, well at least Twalla.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No no, I get separation anxiety and abandonment issues very easily.
So I'm glad you're back. That's that's why you have
like you're a cat lover. I almost showed up at
your place.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, I wasn't home, most likely, and if I was,
I was asleep.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh that might have been awkward, but I almost did it. Anyway,
It is good to be back, and we're in the groove.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We're going to talk about master key postal fraud on
the rise in West Hollywood, specifically when we come back.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Wait a bitte, Let me ask real quick, what did
y'all guys do this weekend?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Anyone got some rest, had a people cocktails, took the
Long Suffering One out for dinner, and watched some terrific movies.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Wait a minute, did you go to the movies? You
just stayed in and watch the movies? I stayed in.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Okay, I watched the original Lost Horizon from nineteen thirty seven,
and it's maybe the greatest adventure film of all time,
maybe one of the greatest movies ever made. Did the
Long Suffering One appreciate that she was asleep when I
put it on? But I insisted the next day that
she watched it and started texting all my friends you
gotta see this.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So it wasn't for her benefit, It was only for
your benefit. Wow, we don't keep the same hour as
much like you and your long Suffering one.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Okay, Stephan, what about you? What did you do?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Just a lot of ubring ubering. Oh you were sleep
Oh yeah, as usual? Okay, like you never not stopped,
never not working. Yeah, Oh I had a day to day.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Ooh, Saturday slept, Sunday sleep, that's a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Sometimes I wish I could have I wish I could
have done that. Like today, right before we go to
this break, my day started I don't know, nine or
ten o'clock preparing for my TV interview at Spectrum, which
is at noon. Then I had an hour long podcast
with Megan McCain for her show, and that's like from
two o'clock un til three o'clock, and then I walked
(07:21):
the dogs, and then I immediately got in the car
and got into traffic and finally got here and we
do this show from seven to ten and then at
eleven forty five tonight have a BBC interview, Mark, what
do you think the topic is going to be?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well, let me just roll the dice here.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I assume it's going to be the thing that absolutely
everybody on the planet is talking about and has been
all day, and that's been causing a five alarm fire,
which is that security breach through the signal app It's
one of the biggest stories in the world bar none.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And it may only be at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Oh, this is only what we know. Yeah, it could
be the tip of the iceberg, and it's a massive story.
We'll always talk about the roach theory. This is a
perfect example of the roach theory.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You think, this is the only time that they were,
you know, doing their thing on signal, talking about all
this classified information.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
This is the only time, this one time, No way
in hell.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
And there was a story in the Kate t La
might have seen the news video of it where they
actually actually have video of the thieves, I would say,
ransacking these post office boxes at a.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Number of apartments in West Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
There's video surveillance that captured multiple male thefts in action,
usually between two and six in the morning, at buildings
along King's Road. And you may not know about this,
or you may ask the question, how is this even possible?
Some years ago, I was on a federal grand jury
for about four months. We would hear cases once a
(09:02):
week on Tuesdays, and the one that we heard the
most usually had to do with mail fraud or identification
theft and mail fraud stealing people's mail and then stealing
their identities or some combination of both, and It usually
happened the same way. There would be these these master
(09:25):
mailbox keys which would be used, and they would run
in through everyone's boxes and take whatever they thought might
have something valuable in terms of information or credit cards
or documentation, and people would always ask the same question,
how is it they would get these master keys?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
More times than not it was an inside job.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Someone who worked at the post office or who had
access to a master key would then sell the key,
or they would make copies and sell the copies because
they're not difficult to copy. And then all of a sudden,
you have these rashal thefts at various mailboxes and they
would either split the profits or have some sort of deal,
(10:07):
and then we'd have postal inspectors come in and testify
how much evidence or at some level of evidence to
prove at least the not beyond reasonable doubt, but there
was enough evidence for a true bill that they would
they indict the person. And it's something that you would
see frequently frequently, and to see this shows once again
(10:31):
it's the same game over and over and over again,
where usually it is someone who either works at the
post office or has access to the keys and then
is selling them, and they're not difficult to duplicate.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Now correct me if you're wrong, but you can get
twenty something years if caught. And these individuals are showing
their faces on camera.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
No one said that they were smart. I mean, you know,
maybe they don't know that it's a federal offense and
punishable by up to like twenty years in prison, federal prison,
and maybe they just don't know how dumb they are.
But yeah, it's a serious offense. In the offense, and
it's actually a common offense because it leads to other
crimes because not only are you trying to steal what
(11:14):
is in the mailbox, you're trying to steal the data
which is contained the credit cards. And then maybe they
will resell the credit card numbers something we also saw
they would sell the credit card numbers.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
On the cases that you were on or that you
were privy to. Did you see any any cases where
say maybe a postal officer was say robbed of the key.
Did it always appear to be an inside job or
was there anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Now it was that's the story that the employee would
tell that the key was robbed to absolve them of responsibility,
like as if they didn't do anything untoward or they
had nothing to do with how the keys here to
ended up in someone else's hands, and then they eventually
get arrested later because we were also shown emails and
(12:06):
other types of communication where they linked it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Wow, you know when I say dumb ass thieves, you
will probably find out, if I'm gonna make any prediction,
you will find out that these thieves have some sort
of connection to some postal employee and they're all in
this together. I'd bet dollars to donuts You're not just
gonna happen across the mailbox key.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I believe that all thefts of this nature, and this
is something Mark and I have in common, that both
of us have had our storage units broken into, and
I am willing to bet everything that in both instances
it's an inside job because you do not have places
that are secured and have cameras that all all of
(12:52):
a sudden, either the cameras aren't working or the cameras
in that area are working, and all of our stuff
gets taken.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's always an inside job. I can promise you. I
would bet everything I have just from what I've seen.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
In all the cases that I was on, it's an
inside job and they will connect these fools to someone
who works at the post office, and you it'll probably
be charged with other things because it's never just the
postal theft. It's usually connected to some other form of fraud,
like identity theft or the credit card numbers that they'll
(13:26):
sell to a number uh a third party, and it's
all connected, and you'll find like there's a ring of
maybe five or six people, and this postal employee might
be working with a different posted employee who works at
a different post office, and it's usually an elaborate ring.
I would not be surprised if they're let's say, five
(13:46):
or six other people connected to this beyond the two
who are just ransacking post office boxes.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Where were we gonna say, Mark, Well, you've mentioned before
how you think like a criminal, and I do too.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Maybe it's our upbringing.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, seriously, but I've always wondered why more people haven't
gotten onto the postal skeleton key thing, and I was
grateful they didn't, because having been a crime reporter off
and on over the years, I found that a lot
of the times criminals aren't very bright and they're kind
of lazy. But the ones who have been at it
for a while, especially in other countries, have some very
clever scams, and the further we fall into economic hard times,
(14:21):
the more clever the thefts are going to be.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
This is not one of them. Unfortunately, this is not
the clever theft.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
This is the garden variety dumbass thief didn't really think
it through. Because you can see their faces clearly, it
won't be long before they find out who these individuals are. Why,
because they keep coming back to the same location again
and again, so they will have multiple videos of these individuals.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They'll find out who they are.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They'll start looking through their social media, they'll start looking
through their private communications, they'll get their phones, and it
will tie back to someone connected to that law post office.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
The other thing that people should know is that it's
not like TV where the cops instantly dispatch a special
forces group to find the people who are stealing your stuff.
A lot of the times they'll take a report and
that's the last year ever going to hear about it, okay,
until someone is indicted.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
In other words, this will be a part of what
they call an investigatory federal grand jury, and they will
follow this investigation probably for weeks. They'll have the same
grand jury members, about twenty of them, who will.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Hear this case.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They'll hear the various levels of evidence against the people
who are involved, and then at the end of that,
when they have an indictment, then a public arrest will
be made and you will find out the scope of
the investigation and the people involved. So, although the story
says no arrests have been reported as of Sunday evening,
(15:55):
they're probably already hot on the trail of who these
individuals are and they're trying to see the bigger picture
of who else is involved. It's not about who used
a key, but who gave them the key or who
gave them copies of the key.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, and the more you publicize it, like the way
we're talking about it right now, the more pressure is
on the officials to follow through on it. Because a
lot of the time, you know, cops aren't like you
see in the movies with some haunted, obsessed person making
it their life's mission to recover the stuff you got
stolen off of your porch or out of your mailbox.
They're too busy. They don't have time. They don't have
(16:30):
to close out all their cases. It's if there's not
an immediate solution to it, it's done.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And also this is immediately handed over to the Postal
Inspectors Federal. I didn't know until I did the federal
grand jury that the Postal Office has their own police
and investigative portion of the post office.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But there have been movies about postal police. I think
Alan Ladd was in one of them. But you don't
see a lot about it these days though.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So if you want the LA Sheriff's Department or LAPD
to handle it, wrong folks, you're calling them wrong people.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, the punisher's not going to get on it for
you either. Really, you've got to be your own best advocate.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I do know one place that there are probably going
to start, and that's amongst the ten thousand USPS postal
workers who have been cut as of last week through
voluntary early retirement.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's a distinct possibility to say, yeah, yeah, I don't
know how they happened to get that key.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I was fired last week. I don't know. Not my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yes, it's a service that is of value to all Americans.
That's spelled out in the Constitution. Let's cut that to
the bone. Who's that going to help? Great point?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
It's Later with mo Kelly I AM six forty one
Live Everywhere, the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I would understand if you want to know, Hey, what
is my ancestry in a DNA sense? You know, at
my twenty three percent this I was always told that
I was Irish de san. I wonder if it's Irish
or if it's maybe British or something like that.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I get it. We're all curious and popular.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
DNA testing from twenty three and me allowed people to
find out more about their history. I don't know how
accurate it was. I really don't know. For all I know,
they probably took your basic information and put it in
some machine and it just spit out something with meant
nothing about nothing. I don't know, but a lot of
people evidently not enough, but a lot of people did
(18:37):
like using the service at twenty three meters. You may
not remember exactly how it marketed itself. Let me refresh
your memory.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
You're here to understand what twenty three in me is
all about, right? And how does it work?
Speaker 1 (18:51):
What does DNA even stand for?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Anyway?
Speaker 6 (18:53):
DNA stands for deoxy ribo nucleic acid. I knew that
you most definitely did not. Our DNA is organized into
twenty three pairs of chromosomes, and it can tell you
a lot about what makes you you. There are two
twenty three and me services that can help you explore
your DNA, one that focuses on ancestry, one that adds
in health and trades.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Think about how much information you're given for that.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
With twenty three and me you can discover where in
the world your DNA comes from. You can even learn
how you are connected to others by opting into twenty
three and me's DNA Relatives feature.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Think about out all that information you're.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
Given and connecting with people who share DNA with you.
There are fascinating insights about your traits to explore. Wow,
you can learn how genetics might influence your risk for
certain diseases. But remember other factors such as lifestyle and
environment are important too.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Who do you think would want that information? Big Pharma?
Speaker 6 (19:48):
Probably if you choose to. You can opt in to
receive genetic health risk reports like Parkinson's disease and lead
on to at Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Free there you go.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It gives you a general idea about twenty three and me,
the type of information that it would collect from you
and anyone else, and how that is put into a
huge database connecting you to other people who may be relatives. Also,
you can be put on a list of people who
have certain traits. You might have certain traits like sickle
cell anemia, or you might be predisposed to or genetically
(20:23):
more likely to suffer from certain diseases or ailments. That
type of information would be worth a lot of money.
Don't ask me to put an actual price on it,
but would be very, very valuable.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And to that end.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Since twenty three and meters is going out of business,
it said in a press release that it plans to
continue operating throughout the sale process and there are no
changes to the way the company stores, manages, or protects
customer data.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Okay, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Attorney General Rob BoNT at California Attorney Generals is advising
people who have submitted their DNA to twenty three meters
to invoke their state right to privacy and request that
the company delete their genetic information. One when you have
to make a request, that's different from a demand. And
if you make a request, that says to me that
(21:14):
they can say no, they have the latitude not to
do it. But I'm sure in the paperwork that you
might have signed in giving away your data and your
genealogy information, there is probably an air tight agreement where
twenty three ande meters retains all rights to keep your
data information in perpetuity and probably can sell it.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
That's one of those ones. Unlike your Apple agreement. You
want to read all the fine print.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, there's probably nothing you can do at this point
because they're in bankruptcy. There only then responsibility or motivation
is to sell that data to pay off its creditors.
That's all they have to bargain with. And it has
great value to somebody, some pharmaceutical, bio mechanical, medical, insurance,
(22:03):
all of that. Someone will buy that information and they
would rather sell it than delete it.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
This is dystopian because we're not too far away from
insurance companies having access to all of your information and
charging you more based on what your DNA says.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Remember when people were just afraid of their social Security
number getting out there.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, good old days yet.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, now everything, and I always live under the expectation
that all my information and data is already out there
on the dark web somewhere. My medical information, my personal information, everything,
my educational information, anything that might have value in some
database exists out there on the dark web.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So, look, you have a family history of, say, prostate cancer,
I guess you have to pay more to be covered
for that, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Probably, especially if it is devouls or disclosed to insurance providers.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, it's a pretty straight line. You don't have to
get into some far reaching sci fi scenario to imagine
that happening.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
It's right around the corner. Yeah, what do you mean
around the corner. I'm quite sure it's already happened. Well,
I'm an optimist, mo.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
When you consider the fact that Musk and Dog have
been granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems, that
kind of takes us there. I'm just saying, like, we're
there when our information is at the hands or in
the greedy, greasy palms of doge.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All it means is all you need is a party
to have it and the ability to sell it to
someone else.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That's all it is.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It is you know there will be a buyer. I
promise you there will be a buyer. I don't know
if just a request to have your data deleted will
mean anything. I think of it as almost like deleting
text messages off your phone. Yeah you can do that,
but it doesn't delete the record of the text message.
No pun intended, as we will talk about that later
(24:07):
on tonight. With you know, classified information and signal.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Information will always exist no matter where you delete it.
And this is disappointing because now I don't get to
find out the truth about being half black.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You'll just have to know in your heart or your loins.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I'd never done the twenty three and me before because
when it first came out, I thought maybe it was
one of those dirty movies that sounds like the title
of one of.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Those what black halfway down? Twenty three and me, Oh
well that too. Going back to the story, it's explicit
it's unclear what will happen to the DNA data of
its fifteen million customers if the firm shuts down. No,
it is clear it will be sold and it will
be purchased. We just don't know who will purchase it.
(24:51):
That is the only unknown variable because if you're going
through bankruptcy, you got creditors and you got to pay
a portion of the of what you oh somehow with
whatever assets you have to pay them off. Data is
their biggest, most valuable asset. Means they're going to sell it, period,
point blank. In a story, Stephand, I'm sorry you should
(25:13):
not have given your information.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I warned you. I warned you, I told you not to.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
But do you feel better now now that you know
you're seventy five percent Akadinian?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, It's Later a bo Kelly KFI six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and Macy's.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
We might be coming to an end of an era.
That's next.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty when moo Kelly on k.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Six Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And my years
of writing are written for a number of places over
the years, I was always taught and Mark, tell me
if you agree or disagree with this. Now, there's times
I was providing content and I was not the headline writer.
But whenever a headline was written for me. I would
(26:11):
cringe every time they tried to put a headline in
the form of a question.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Oh god, right, yeah, it's so lazy. Have an actual headline.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So when I read this story says the end of
an era question mark, that means yes, just skip to
the end. Yes, it's an end of the era for Macy's.
Macy says confirmed closure of iconic store and sets liquidation date.
But don't write a headline with a question rhetorical question mark.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Now, I spent a very roughly half my newspaper career
explaining to readers that I didn't write that dumb headline.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Right, you have the headline writer, and you don't have
a say.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Usually it's usually copy editors or an editor who writes
the headline and not thet I had a review of
a of a Bond movie once and some jerk wrote,
it's double low Heaven. It's like, why don't I just
kill myself right now?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And they always wrongly attribute the headline to the writer.
The piece could be great, but if you have a
crappy headline, it makes the piece look bad.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
And they're uniformly terrible. I mean, these are you've got
to remember that the kind of person who becomes a copywriter.
They might be decent people, but they're not a writer.
They're copywriters because they're not writers. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Macy's has released a list of sixty six stores that
it plans to close, most of which will be closed
this first quarter of twenty twenty five, and by twenty
twenty six, Macy's will be closing around one hundred and
fifty locations in total that are quote unquote underproductive. But
they are going to invest in three hundred and fifty
(27:49):
go forward locations, which I guess are those micro Macy's
which they'll use. I remember growing up on Macy's. Macy's
was the qui essential big box retailer. If you've ever
put it this way, you've never been to a store unless
you went to the Macy's in New York. Well, that's
the closest we had to the big Herods in London.
(28:11):
And by the way, I should point out I misspoke.
I should have said copy editor, not copywriter, whatever, editor whatever.
We strive from accuracy. But the mall O hate them.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, I agree, But yeah, it was the closest we
had to the big like Miracle on thirty fourth Street
type of experience if you've never been, and I haven't
been in years, but when I went many years ago,
the Macy's in New York had a floor for just
women's shoes, had a floor for just.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Min's shoes, had a complete when I say floor, the
size of like Dilamo Mall, Macy's do.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It was huge.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But you're talking about seven eight stories high of just
one store, not six or seven different stores.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
One store.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, these things were kind of the apex of Western culture.
The Russians hated for it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, they should love us now because it's all being
torn down.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I wonder why. That's another conversation.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, but Macy's, when I was growing up, it was
more than just the parade.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It was about the department store.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It was the place where we went to shop, and
to Mark's point, it was a symbol of our capitalism.
We don't use those those giant retailers in the same
way anymore. We would rather, and with good reasons, sit
at home and do that shopping with a few clicks
on the keyboard and get most of the same items.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Now that you're talking about this, it's reminding me of
all these films we saw in history class of Mixon
leading Khrushchev through. It might have been a Macy's, I
don't know for sure, but it was a symbol of
Western culture for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
The Khrushchev, they're.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Marveling at our at our washers and dryers that we
could have in our homes the future, just prior to
pounding his shoe on the table in the un saying
that he was going to bring him down.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yes, we will bury you, I think was the quote
attributed to him. Huh, But I understand that, you know,
everything has to move on. Nothing's going to stay the same,
and our economy is always evolving. We will not see
this time again of going to the big department store
in the way that we did in the eighties and nineties,
(30:19):
a mall. Shopping malls or a thing of the past.
These big box retailers are a thing of the past.
Now it's Amazon and eBay and these other micro retailers
you can find online. Like for example, I love Nike shoes,
but I don't go to the Nike store. With the
exception of looking online and ordering them and maybe picking
(30:43):
them up from the Nike store, there's really no need
to go to a store to shop for the most
part anymore, I don't have to.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No, and you've got to remember how much you are
paying for their overhead if they've got a physical store
like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Oh, the rent is ridiculous for most of these places, exactly,
And unfortunately Mark, this kind of goes back to our
AI conversation, where businesses are always going to be on
the lookout for ways to minimize their overhead and get
rid of employees. The whole idea of having a store,
a physical brick and mortar location staffed with employees, when
(31:21):
all they really need is a hub to hand out
the stuff that you're buying online for the most part,
like a distribution center.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, it's too bad because I miss interacting with other humans. Oh,
I think that's overrated. I hate people.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I don't disagree with that, But I didn't intend to
spend the second half of my life in complete isolation.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All I know is I would be sad to see
Macy's go, but I understand it. And if you're under
the age of forty, you have no emotional tie to
Macy's other than you might know that's the same name
as the parade.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
That's about it. They were kind of magical places. There
was nothing quite like them in their prime and their heyday.
There's a through line in all this. Macy's also connects
to Toys r Us.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Those stores that we may connect with our childhood or
some sort of nostalgia. They don't have any place in
today's society, not in terms of business, not in terms
of our economy, not in terms of our shopping, our
shopping habits. If we're going to do Christmas shopping, do
we really need to go to the store.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
No, Hopefully we're smart enough to do all this online.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
It's funny yesterday where I was walking through the mall
with my daughter and we saw the Macy's in the
Bourbang mall looked like it was damn near empty. And
I said, dang man, Macy's is going out of business.
And my daughter said, now, what does macy sell again?
What is that's right right next to there? There is
(32:56):
are not far from there is a Forever twenty one
one with big giant signe saying going out of business, liquidation, cell,
everything must go. It's another big retail of this on
his way out. And I'm like, dang a Fashion or
twenty one whatever. And my daughter's like, good riddance. I
don't buy anything for anything I buy is on line.
And see there's a distinction which should be made. Some
(33:19):
people will say, hey, Mason's just going out of business.
It must mean our economy is horrible. No, it just
means our economy is changing. We're spending money, we're just
spending it in a different way like how we spend
our money. As far as the movies are concerned, we're
not necessarily going to the movies, but we're still consuming movies.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
We're still watching movies. We just have alternative ways to
watch the very same movies. We don't need to go
to a physical brick and mortar movie house to watch
as many movies. Now, anything I want to see, if
I'm willing to wait three weeks, I can watch it
home for probably less of a price than if I
were to actually go to the theater and buy two
tickets and two tubs of popcorn and a soda.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Certainly less irritation, oh far less, far less. And then
there's no I can't say that I'll get in trouble. Trouble,
what are you talking about? It? I can't and I
can't say that I can't say that irritation varies by location.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh okay, I tell you life is complicated. It's later
with Mokelly ki If I am six forty. We're live
everywhere the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Chock Bullet Stimulating Talk, k f I M, the k
O S T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Live everywhere on the radiop
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