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March 1, 2024 30 mins
CALIFORNIA EFFORT TO CRACK DOWN ON LEGACY AND DONOR ADMISSIONS COULD HIT USC AND STANFORD
ITS NOW SIGNIFICANTLY MORE DEADLY TO BE HOMELESS. THE DEATH RATE HAS TRIPLED. WHY ARE SO MANY DYING?
HE CLAIMS TO HAVE SAVED CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNERS BILLIONS. THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY HATES HIM.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listenings k f I AM sixforty. The bill handles show on demand
on the iHeartRadio affecting rains again comingin today through the weekend. Can't wait
for that one, can you?Just we need more rains. Supreme Court
ruled that there's no such thing anymorewhere you can discriminate basically against white people.

(00:25):
Can't schools cannot admit people based onrace, right, they have to
be just even Stephen, which meansthat people named Stephen have an upper upper
hand. But the court that's asort of side comment made by the court,

(00:46):
So it's a sort of counterintuitive billthat came in. Assemblyman Paul Ting,
Democrat out of San Francisco, superLiberal, introduced a bill to ban
state and financial aid to private campusesthat give admission preferences to children of alumni

(01:07):
and donors, saying, here isthe argument. It's kind of interesting because
those people are primarily white. Thereforeyou can't do it because it is discriminatory.
And the Court said you can't discriminate. Now, when you think about
discriminating, it's against minorities, youknow, against poor people. And this

(01:30):
is taking the same philosophy and goingthe other way. And why is that.
Well, legacy and donor admissions arebasically white kids from white parents who
have tons of money. Case inpoint legacy, right, George W.
Bush went to Yale among four othercolleges, and he got in because he

(01:55):
had crap grades. You think hegot in because his dad, George H.
Bush, who was the vice presidentunder Reagan, who was you literally
talk about some credentials to be president. He was head of the CIA,
he was ambassador to China, andhis son strangely got in with crap grades

(02:19):
to Yale. You think that's alegacy. Okay, Oh, here's one
in terms of a legacy. Howabout this Barack Obama's kids while he's in
the White House, Sasha and Malia, Right, Sasha goes to the University
of Michigan, considered an IVY leagueor in that league school. Malia goes

(02:39):
to Harvard And I don't know ifyou ever looked at their application. You
know how long applications are to schools. I mean it goes on for pages
and pages. If you look attheir applications, they just put their name
on it. That's it, LILYA. Obama. But the good news it
was across the entire page in bigprint. How about that for a legacy.

(03:05):
How about that for just a littlebit of an advantage. So what
is going on with this is thatherefore donors, legacy, parents went,
grandparents went to the school had abig advantage, and there's a lot of
pushback on that. So school,well, this bill is going to say

(03:29):
that any school receiving cal grant programs, which is a big part of helping
out schools, and it helps theirdiversity program bringing in students who can't afford
to go to school. It's abig deal, are not going to receive
cal grant money if they provide preferentialtreatment and admissions to an applicant related to

(03:51):
a donor or alumni. I don'tknow how far this one goes, because
what if an applicant is actually qualified, Dad went to that school? Is
that a no? What if dador mom have insane amounts of money and

(04:11):
their name is on a building,does that mean that student goes to this
school is turned down? Now itused to be an automatic yes, Now
the argument is it should be anautomatic No. Why because it's discriminatory on
its face. Actually, it's defacto discriminatory, not absolute let's discriminate against
white people. But what the billis saying, and those that are advocating

(04:36):
pushing forward on this bill, isthat since mainly white people are the recipients
of being admitted, they have ahuge advantage. If parents donated big money,
or if parents went to that schoolor both, then automatically, on
its face, its discrimination. It'sde facto discrimination. And by the way,

(04:58):
the courts early on during the WarrenCourt said if there is de facto
discrimination, even non intended discrimination.Now keep in mind when the Warren Court
made that decision, I mean,there was plenty of real discrimination going on.
The Jim Crow Laws were in place, the redlining against African Americans in
terms of good buying property, gettingloans. But the court said, even

(05:24):
de facto, even if it iswithout the intent, it is illegal.
And that's the argument on this side. Even though there is no intent to
allow donors in terms of their whiteit doesn't matter what color they are,
guess what, mainly white people.Therefore illegal discriminatory. Therefore, we're not

(05:47):
going to allow this school to takecal grant loans or cal grant grants.
Is that what it's is, Andthe schools are well Harvard is one of
those schools more likely to admit studentsfrom high income families top one percent go

(06:08):
there a lot. And what otherschools are doing this? Stanford is being
accused of it and they're up inthe air. They don't know. USC
is being nailed on this. Soyou've got schools all over California. All
right, enough of that one.Now, I want to do a segment

(06:30):
on homelessness. And it's another spinon homelessness. I know, I know,
we talk about homeless all the time, and it's so important to us
and it affects every one of us. When you're driving, for example,
and you see homeless encampments, Igot to tell you it's part of what
we live with here in southern Californiaor all of California, particularly in saying
California. And I'm going to giveyou another stat that is just chilling.

(06:55):
That's all coming up. You're listeningto Bill Handle on demand from KFI.
And it's gonna be rained again today. We're looking and some heavy rain and
in the Sierra Siria Sierras, it'sgonna be insanely haavy, lots of snow.
Her reports of maybe up to twelvefeet of snow. That's some serious
snow. We have to start.We have to start doing the snowpack Report,

(07:17):
which we used to do every summer. Because that was zero snow snow.
It's time for another bill handle showsnowpack Reports. Yeah, we had
a lot of drops on that one. And the reason I love the snowpack

(07:39):
Report so much is the people whomeasure the snowpack. It's a stick.
Literally, it's a stick that theywalk on the snow. One guy did
it. Now there are two whenhe retired, and the stick goes into
the ground and when it hits theground, then they go, okay,
how far up as it goes.It's like when you were a kid and
as you were growing, the lineswent up, the pencil lines went up

(08:01):
on the jam on the door jam. All right, now, I'm gonna
get serious for a moment. Andthis is not fun. The homeless people,
you know, it's not fun tobe homeless. I mean, obviously
it's a rough way to go.And there's a study that just came out
that we haven't seen before, andit looked into mortality rates in homeless communities

(08:22):
throughout the country. And we're talkingabout not only Americans. But it's even
more here in southern California, themortality rate for unhoused Americans more than tripled
in ten years. We're talking aboutper capita, not just the numbers,
because of course the numbers have explodedbased on the numbers of the homeless.

(08:45):
New data makes it clear that aswe're trying to combat the homelessness crisis and
spending god awful amounts of money andsetting up I would say, almost countless
pro and there's new one every year, and it's getting worse and worse.
Now we're talking sixty thousand homeless inLa County. The death rate more than

(09:09):
tripled between twenty eleven and twenty twentynine years. It's just more dangerous to
be homeless, and people's lives areon the line. This isn't just a
miserable, horrible existence. And duringthe winter, I mean we have great
weather here relatively speaking. I tellyou where it's very rough to be homeless,

(09:31):
as Buffalo, New York in thewinter. Try that one. Do
they even have homeless after winter becausethey've all died on the street. I
guess they have more shelters. I'massuming per capita, and I don't know
the answer. So it's a studythat was done at the University of Pennsylvania,

(09:52):
and we're talking about a two hundredand thirty eight percent increase across the
country, and it's far worse inCalifornia. Let's compare they're comparing this to
a natural disaster, a big one, or even war. Now, let's
look into this a little deeper.Overdoses played a major role, and that
didn't happen years ago. Also ratesof things that could be avoided home regular

(10:18):
access to preventive medical care, whichis worse, heat, cold exposure,
traffic injuries, cardiovascular delete disease,diabetes. I don't think that's changed.
Certainly the the fentanyl overdose, theopiate overdoses have changed. And another reason
is county records are just better keepingtrack of those who die and who is

(10:45):
homeless. Because when you look ata death certificate, for example, even
if someone has died clearly as aresult of being homeless, it doesn't show
up on the death certificate. Therewas no there's no way of knowing.
When you pull those records, itjust sows the cause of death as an
overdose or a congenital heart failure orkidney disease or dehydration whatever. In California,

(11:13):
the study looked at Alameda County,La Orange County, Sacramento, San
Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Solano counties between twenty fifteen,
over five years, mortality rate morethan doubled. Now, this is based
on a federally mandated point in timepopulation counts. We talked about this yesterday

(11:37):
when you talk about the homeless LaCounty, because that's where I have all
the information is done over a threeday period, done by volunteers for the
most part, and it is asnapshot. So you have someone homeless on
the street and the next week movesinto a family members and does CouchSurfing and
gets a place to live. Well, that person is still homeless. Also

(12:03):
the homeless encampments, and this oneis a study that was kind of interesting.
Part of the study that the overdosesoccurred more out of the homeless encampments.
And you would think there'd be moredrugs in the homeless encampments. Well,
in homeless encampments, those that arehomeless are closer to each other.

(12:26):
They watch out for each other.If someone collapses, a phone call is
made to nine to one one becauseeverybody has a cell phone, by the
way, everybody, and so itis safer to be in a homeless encampment.
And that's something that we thought about. And here I'm going to end
on this one, okay, Andthis is kind of a scary one.

(12:48):
The average life expectancy in the UnitedStates is what seventy six or for women
it's eighty something. The average ageof death in this study for homeless across
the country fifty one, twenty sevenyears younger you die on average. But

(13:13):
why do we think this is goodfor that? Where's the compassion of letting
people live on the streets? Like, well, first of all, how
many shelters can you build? Butthey're in the shelters. There's a lot
of them don't want to go tothe shelters. I don't know what the
percentage it is, but there arepeople and it's not a small amount that

(13:33):
simply will not go to the shelters. Why they have dogs, they have
pets, No dogs, no pets. All the pod has to do with
dry. Them being dry, youcan't drink, Yeah, that's the other
thing. And they have just alot of junk. You know, you
have these shopping carts full of stuffand you can't bring that in And I

(13:56):
get I'm not going to cut loosewith my stuff. I know someone like
that. Why are you looking atme? Yeah? Like my cart?
I know you do a shopping cart. Yeah. Okay, coming up,
the insurance industry hates this guy andthis organization, and why the insurance industry

(14:20):
home insurance, car insurance is suchan outlier. Here in California, we
do it differently than any other state. And I'll explain when we come back.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty on a
Friday morning, March one. Comingup at eight o'clock Footy Friday with Neil

(14:43):
and we're going to talk about themost probably the best pizza in the entire
country, which I'll bet you didn'tknow about. That's going to be a
surprise for you. And then Worldin Review at eight thirty, where I
look back at the big, bigstories that have happened both to us and
around the world. Okay, insurancehere in California. Let me tell you

(15:05):
why insurance is so crazy. Forpeople that live in fire prone areas burn
areas, You're not getting home insurance, You're not getting property insurance for people
like me who had my insurer saygetting out of the state, goodbye,
and I'm looking for an insurance companyto basically pick up my property. My

(15:30):
property. By the way, myinsurance lapsed November eleventh, that's when it
ended and they said, no,thank you, we're gone. I figured,
okay, I'm going to get anotherinsurance company. Took me two and
a half weeks. I was barefor two and a half weeks. I
did not sleep for two and ahalf weeks, and I finally was able
to pick up an insurance policy forthe low low price of twice as much

(15:56):
as I was paying for my previouspolicy. So that's my personal story.
So insurance industry groups have called whatis happening a bomb throwing bogus adversy group.
What are they talking about. They'retalking about a guy named Harvey Rosenfield
and Consumer Watchdog. Consumer Watchdog beingan advocacy program that represents consumers against insurance

(16:25):
companies keep rate slow to basically representthem. The insurance lobby is huge,
The insurance company's lobby is huge.We as purchasers of insurance, there really
isn't a good lobbying group well,you've got Consumer Watchdog, which is one
of the watchdog groups that represent usand are on our side. Well,

(16:49):
Home Insurance have stopped writing new policies. I told you they've left parts of
the state that are prone to wildfire. We're done. And so you have
a new voice joining in the ranksof the critics who are nailing insured Consumer

(17:11):
Watchdog, and that happens to bethe insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Laura. And
here's what's new. This guy representsthe consumer. This is the insurance commissioner
is basically dead set against the insurancecompany. He sets the rates, the
insurance Commission sets the race. Theonly state in the Union where an insurance

(17:36):
company wants to raise rates has togo in front of this guy and the
commission and say, here's why wewant to raise the rates, and a
whole lot of time the commission saysno, And a whole lot of time
the insurance company say we want aten percent raise and here's why, and
the insurance Commission says no, we'llgive you seven percent, and so they

(17:56):
walk away. And what ends uphappening based on the r they can't get
and the market and the cost ofrebuilding and the number of homes that have
gone up in flames. It's wipedout the market. They're losing money,
the insurance companies, and they're gettingout. They're just getting out of California.
I was bere for two and ahalf weeks. I was scrambling to

(18:18):
find an insurance company. Pick meup twice as much, Thank you very
much. I mean, and Idon't know, and I bought a year's
policy. I don't know what's goingto happen. I'll tell you one thing.
If my house burns down, wellnow it doesn't matter. The house
can burn down all at once becauseI as a matter of fact, if
it does burn down, I'm goingto rebuild it with insurance money, and
it's going to be brand new.This is a case of Jewish lightning,

(18:41):
where you toward your own house forthe insurance payments. Seriously, well,
you know that's what they call it. No, they don't. Nobody calls
it that. I nobody calls itout. Oh a lot of people call
it that, But that doesn't matter. That was a little bit of a
tangent. So let's move on tothe fact that the Consumer Watchdog, which

(19:04):
is on behalf of the consumer.The elected insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Laura in
this case is elected by the people, which means he should be on the
side of the people. Right,He is nailing Consumer Watchdog, which represents

(19:26):
the people, the consumer. Whatis going on? And by the way,
Laura wouldn't even have a job ifit weren't for Consumer Watchdog? And
what is this about? How doesall this pan out? Okay, let's
go to Prop one three. Andthat happened in nineteen eighty eight, and

(19:47):
there was a group that came outof that called Consumer Watchdog, and that
was based on Ralph Nader in spurringnew consumer regulation. Ralph Nader very interesting
guy. He wrote a Safe atAny Speed about the Corvet, a GM
car that was killing people left andright. And he is the one that

(20:07):
created the consumer industry, if youwill. He also ran in the primary
or he ran in the presidential againstagainst George Bush And oh my god,
did my mind just go? Whyam I thinking Robert Dole? And it
isn't geez names. Sometimes I'll standup and start screaming the name any minute

(20:33):
vice president under Al Gore, AlGore, thank you very much. Name
just slip my mind. Sorry,what is al Gore Alex No, I
don't think so Jeopardy that Jeopardy reference. Go ahead, Oh yeah, I
don't know if it's anyway what hedid. Ralph Nader entered that fight and

(20:55):
guaranteed that al Gore lost because hewas a spoiler and there was a there's
a whole history that and if youknow his name, you'll know what it's
about. In the meantime, theProposition one to three Rosenfield helped write and
it enacted literally the most stringent insuranceindustry regulation in the country. Created the

(21:15):
Office of the Insurance Commissioner to headthe state Department of Insurance, an elected
office, and it's the only placein the country where if an insurance company
comes in wants to raise the rate, as I said, has to go
in front of the insurance Commissioner,and most of the time the commission says

(21:36):
no or lowers the amount of increase. And it was all about providing transparency
into the market the insurance market.Prevent insurance from charging excessive fees, excessive
as determined by the Insurance Commission,not the market, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory
rates certain an area read lining forexample, minority areas will charge more rates.

(22:03):
I mean there was a lot ofdiscrimination there and uh, that's that
happened. That was thirty five yearsago. So let me come back and
explain the what's going on, becausethere is something happening right now, very
very strange. And I will writedown the name of al Gore, so
next time I mention his name,I will remember it. And by the

(22:26):
ways, that's right. And justfor your information, Jewish lightning is a
thing or coming back. I'm justsaying, don't say it. Oh okay,
okay, hat you weight it?You can look it up? It
up, Please look it up.You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from

(22:47):
KFI A M. Six forty.Before we go to Foody Friday with Neil
some great stuff. A survey justcame out and the best pizza that has
ever been produced. I'm going totalk about Neil's giving me the weird look
you'll see. And then this week'sWorld in Review, where I review the

(23:10):
big stories that we have covered throughoutthe week. Now, nineteen eighty eight,
the people in the state of Californiapassed something called Prop One toh three,
which protects the consumer against insurance companies, and it's established an insurance commissioner
elected by the people, who effectivelyhelps us the consumer fight against or protects

(23:33):
us against the insurance companies from raisingrates and staying in the industry and not
bailing out. And one of thewell, consumer Watchdogs started right around that
time, and it was part oftrying to elect and it did or trying
to establish the election of the insurancecommissioner set up all of these protections.

(23:56):
And so you've got the insurance commissionerwho's elected, who's on our side if
you are a purchaser of insurance products, which we all are where for the
most of us are, and youhad Consumer Watchdog on our side because remember
Consumer Watchdog was pitching Prop one OZHOthree like crazy. Well you now have

(24:17):
the insurance Commissioner coming down against ConsumerWatchdog and what is that? What is
going on? Well, what ishappening is insurance companies are no longer the
powerhouses that they were. They're losingmoney, they're bailing out of the state.
The wildfires, the flooding we've hadsimply costs so much money for insurance

(24:44):
carriers to cover that they're just gettingout of, getting out of Dodge,
the entire state of Dodge. Sowhy is uh, where's consumer watchdog here?
Why is the insurance commissioner pit soangry? Well, if you look
at what it does Prop oneh threeis that it not only sets up the

(25:07):
office of the insurance Commissioner, whois elected, which means he's going to
be He's not going to be afriend of the insurance industry. He's going
to be our friend. Otherwise wedon't reelect him. Although in reality is
we always re elect the same commissionerbecause nobody knows anybody's name, and it's
one of those like electing judges.Yeah, no one pays attention and who's
ever sitting judge gets wins in thisstate. So the insurance Commissioner theoretically and

(25:34):
does represent us. And if aninsurance company, as I said in the
last segment, wants to go andwant increase in fees, has to go
in front of the insurance commissioner andquite often no, or I want ten
percent, now you're getting six.Now let me tell you what the bill
does is every time there is anincrease request by the industry, watchdog groups

(26:00):
can come in and argue that thereshouldn't be an increase, they're invited to
go to the hearings to argue againstthe increase. Okay, fair enough.
Watchdog groups under Prop One three,those watchdog groups. And by the way,
Consumer Watchdog is really the only oneleft. It was the big one.

(26:22):
It is the big ones. Otherones so sort of bailed out.
The law says that when Consumer Watchdogcomes in joins the fray on behalf of
the consumer arguing against the industry askingfor an insurance company asking for more money.
Not only are they allowed to comein, whatever it costs for them

(26:45):
to come in has to be paidby the insurance company. The insurance companies
have to fund Consumer Watchdog. Andthat goes so with the end my history
is saying, and this is wherethe insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Laara says,
Hey, they're in it for themoney. Look at how much money they're

(27:07):
making. It is ridiculous. Andthey are stopping and getting in the way
and filing lawsuits to stop every increase, and they are now hurting more than
they're helping. And effectively, theargument is they've run their course, and
they've become more and more powerful,and they've run their course. They're done

(27:33):
we don't need them anymore because nowthey're a hindrance and the insurance companies have
to pay for them interfering getting involvedin these hearings, these requests, and
it's just it's crazy making. Andso you've rarely see an insurance commissioner join
the insurance industry in going against aconsumer advocacy group that is the watchdog,

(28:02):
Consumer Watchdog, and it is gettingit's getting vicious, it really is.
In Oh, by the way,when this started, when the Prop one
three, there were a dozen ofthese watchdog groups, but they didn't have
the resources. Consumer Watchdog was firstin was able to raise the money.
And so last two years, bythe way, Consumer Watchdog intervened in,

(28:30):
I think it's all state asking formore money, and they did it over
and over again. However, letme give you some stats. The final
result for ratepayers ended up thirty eightpercent lower than what the company is requested
for home insurance, twenty nine percentlower for auto insurance. Request the insurance
the insurance companies requested and what theygot is twenty nine percent lower fee than

(28:56):
what they wanted. And when youlook at and Consumer Watchdog does not get
involved, the amount approved is onlytwo to three percent lower than what the
company's request versus thirty percent lower.I mean, they really do a good
job, but you know, isit just too expensive now? Do they

(29:18):
have too much power? Do weneed them? Interesting fight going on,
it really is. And the partthat I find fascinating is an elected official
that is there to represent the consumerjoins the insurance industry and fighting the consumer
watchdog which represents the consumer. Don'tsee that very often. Coming up Footy

(29:41):
Friday with Neil who is host ofThe Fork Report tomorrow two to five.
All right, we're coming back withthat. Let's check in with Amy King
live in the KFI twenty four hournewsroom. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch my Show Mondaythrough Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadioapp.

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