July 28, 2025 • 31 mins
8:00 - James Carville rips Columbia University for caving to Trumps DEI demands
8:15 - Dry weddings are a thing
8:30 - Are there enough air traffic controllers??
8:45 - More about air traffic controllers.
8:15 - Dry weddings are a thing
8:30 - Are there enough air traffic controllers??
8:45 - More about air traffic controllers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings k I AM six forty the bill Handle
show on demand on the iHeartRadio f.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
JF I AM forty bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here it is a Monday morning, July twenty eight, and
a couple of stories we are looking at. First of all,
Thailand and Cambodia good news, that's good news, have agreed
to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Just took a few days.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, these are two countries that wanted a ceasefire, unlike
what's going on with the rest of the world read
Russia and Ukraine. Guys, what's happening there? All right, that's
enough for that. We have tons of those. But I
want to get into what's going on with the universities
in this country. All right now, Columbia just just announced
(00:55):
it had made a deal with the federal government of
just Democratic strategist James Carville ripped into Columbia University for
agreeing to pay two hundred and twenty one million dollars
to the administration to restore the school's federal funding. Now,
(01:16):
a couple of things I want to share with you.
I don't remember any administration saying to any major university
one we're gonna stop federal funding if you don't do
a the other one, if you don't do a on
(01:36):
top of that, we're gonna take over. We're gonna remove
your accreditation. And that's what's happening with Harvard. Harvard is
in caving. And this has to do with dei programs,
This has to do with wokeness, This has to do
with anti Semitism on campus because Jewish students are being harassed,
in some cases not being allowed to go into class
(02:00):
because of the pro Palestinian demonstrations that are going on.
You know that if you go to university today, and
this has gone forever, ever since the war, ever since
the sixty seven war. So how many years ago is
that the schools have been pro Palestinian. They've been anti Israeli,
(02:21):
the oppressors, the Israelis. I mean, I remember when I
went to college, and that was a few years ago.
It was the Palestinians, the poor Palestinians. So let's divest
any school money that's being invested in Israel. I. Mean,
that's just sort of a given, and it was accepted. Well,
(02:44):
it was accepted because number one, the professors all have
tenure and the universities are a bastion of free speech,
and if you want to go and demonstrate in favor
of the Palestinians, you have the right to do that. Well,
you have an administration now that is about pro Israel
as you can get and has said to these universities
(03:04):
you're done, you are done with this anti semitism. You
have to stop the demonstrations that even cross the line
of or across the line other than just standing up
there im peaceably demonstrating with the flags whatever you want
in certain areas. Oh by the way, not on school grounds.
(03:30):
So the administration has been saying to these major universities.
Columbia I don't think has been a disappoint charged with
or has been extorted in this case with removing its accreditation.
Harvard certainly has in addition to federal funding. So here's
what the administration is doing. Just cutting off federal funding.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The reality is, there's virtually no school in this country,
no university in this country that doesn't have federal funding
running part of it. And where does it come from, Well,
federal funding. And the president has the ability to say no.
Some lawsuits are flying on that one too, and so
Columbia caved. Okay, we're going to do whatever you say.
(04:17):
And here's James Carvell, democratic strategist responsible for Bill Clinton's election.
I've never seen such cowards in my life. My head
is off to hot Harvard. At least they have guts.
So Columbia University announced it agreed to a two hundred
million dollars settlement with a federal government over its anti
(04:37):
semitism or allowing anti semitism. That's paid over the next
three years twenty one million dollars to the US Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, and acting Columbia University president said this
agreement marks an important step forward after a period of
sustained federal scrutiny and institutional un certainty.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh wow, how.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
About we caved after the threats that were made to us?
And I'm pro Israel, but stopping students from going into
class that crosses the line and allowing that to happen,
that crosses the line. So Claire Shipman, the acting president,
said the settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values
(05:26):
that define us and allow our essential research partnership with
the federal government to get back on track. That's another
way of saying we caved. We want the money. We
need the money, So whatever the Feds want, whatever the
administration wants, we're going to go ahead and do it.
Columbia lost four hundred million dollars in federal funding earlier
(05:47):
of the year after the administration cut it off over
a probe of anti semitism, So the school is arguing
the deal will allow the institution to keep its academic
independent Hang on a minute, Okay, we're caving to what
the federal administration wants. What the administration wants, we're going
(06:08):
to do everything it said, but we are going to
be academically independent independent, really at least be honest about
it and say, we need the federal dollars. And we
have no choice because we're going to lose all of.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Our medical research.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We're going to lose all of the lab work that's
going on right now. We're going to lose it all
because we won't have the money. So we had to cave.
Oh no, no, no, We now have independence and we
are thrilled with the government relinquishing its issue of stopping
the federal funding, and we're doing exactly what they want.
(06:51):
DII program's gone. Affirmative action of any kind gone. The
anti Semitism as the administration views the anti semitism gone,
So the President wrote on social media, it's a great
honor to have been involved.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And mandated and you don't do it? There's no money
and there goes accreditation. Oh God. I want to thank
and congratulate Secretary Linda McMahon who and all those who
worked on this important deal with us. I also want
to thank and commend Columbia University for agreeing to do
(07:33):
what's right. I look forward to watching them have a
great future in our country, maybe greater than ever before.
Jerry Nadler, Republican Representative. He's a Democrat from New York,
probably one of the better known congress people, said my
(07:54):
alma mater he went to. Columbia has allowed a once
highly respected institution to succumb to the Trump administration's coercive
and exploitative tactics. Columbia has effectively waived the white flag
of surrender in the battle at the heart of the
Trump Administration's war on higher education.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And academic freedom. I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Even though I think there is anti semitism on campus,
I do believe that it's pure coercion, that's all.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's extortion. It'ssess simple, and.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Harvard is they're holding fast.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Harvard isn't caving. At this point. Harvard may actually lose
its accreditation. Can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Harvard may lose its accreditation the number one university in
the United States, and the administration is talking about two
billion dollars being cut off. Okay, coming out for those
of you women folk who take Uber. And there's been
(09:03):
some big issues with Uber in terms of sexual harassment
and inappropriate behavior by Uber drivers. There's something brand new
that uber is has introduced and I'll tell you about
that coming up, Kay, fine, am six forty bill handle
here on a Monday morning, July twenty eight. Now, I
(09:26):
was gonna do the Uber story about women asking for
women drivers, but I'm gonna do that tomorrow because I'd
rather have fun with this one that came up. And
this has to do with dry weddings. Huh no, booze weddings.
(09:49):
I don't get Yeah. Will's looking at me and going
what is that about. I mean, even if you have
people that don't drink, For example, I don't drink, and
so at my wedding that we had in March. It
was an open bar, not even this no host bar business.
And keep in mind, my side does not drink. Lindsey's side, well,
(10:15):
let me put it this way. Her entire family and
friends got on the tables naked and started dancing. Let's
just say they do a fair amount of drinking. I
mean we had champagne on the table. Each of them
were chugging the champagne from the bottle. I mean they
are pretty good drinkers. But there's this thing going on
(10:37):
about dry weddings. I mean it's a thing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Wow. I don't get it. This out of the Wall
Street Journal.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
They did a whole thing on this, because an open
bar was usually the sign of a great party. I
don't know how you can't. And here's what's going on.
There's loud and proud sobriety out there now. So alcohol
is no longer a must have for couples on their
wedding day. Mocktails, coffee, soda, coffee, you know, the station's
(11:10):
everybody is stone cold sober.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
How do you do that? Don't you know?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There's always an uncle who is out there, you know,
ripping off his clothes and going around and patting women's behinds.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
There's an influencer in Atlanta, Shabon McCaffrey, and she talks
about a dry wedding she went to two years ago
as the worst wedding I've ever been to.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Of course it was.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And your wedding is not only about you. It's all
about making a good experience.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For the guests. And why do you go for a wedding.
Why do you go to a wedding?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Is it because you care about those people? Of course,
not my wedding or the wedding. For example, I threw
for my daughter Barbara, right. I mean, the only thing
that made it even stomachable was the fact that everybody
got drunk. I mean the fact that you know everybody
(12:10):
nobody's drinking. Give me a break on that one. Now,
most weddings are still boozy. There was a survey done
on a wedding planning website called Zola, and only six
percent say they would have a complete alcohol free wedding.
(12:32):
Now here's what's going on. A lot of couples are
just kicking back and only allowing, for example, wine and
beer and not hard liquor because it's just expensive. And
the problem is, for most part is just more expensive
to do a wedding. Weddings are so expensive. I cannot
believe it. Cannot told Barbara her second wedding. By the way,
(12:56):
I told her that night in front of her husband.
They'd been married for ten minutes. I said, your next
wedding is going to be you in front of an
Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas and you're gonna have cokes.
That's going to be your wedding because of the money. Now,
needless say, her husband wasn't thrilled with that. For most people,
(13:18):
a dry wedding is just insane, makes no sense, and
you were married obviously, she listens.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
No, she doesn't have her headset on honestly, what's next?
Are they going to just start doing brown bag weddings
where you just make your own sandwich and bring with
you a bad idea brown You don't know you have
a sandwich bar. You know what?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's not bad when you think about it. A sandwich bar.
I'd have Brents cater it and layout, the bagels and
the bread. I've been to those those are great, So
don't knock it until you've tried it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
With a big pile of Zilman's at the end.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You have to. Oh, yeah, you have to, because there'd
be a lot of bagels and locks, like Brentsia the
other day when we were celebrating thirty two years of
this show, and there were the locks, there was a
cream cheese, there were the onions that were there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Here at a bageld wedding. That wouldn't be bad. That
wouldn't be bad.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So one of the people interviewed for this, Nathaniel Lieberman,
got married last September and he booked a fire hall
a fire station, I guess, for a couple of extra bucks,
and they don't allow alcohol on the premises. He hired
(14:41):
a coffee cart. Come on, really, just needzed? All right,
We're done with that dry weddings insanity. Although it's happening.
The thing is growing, but I think it's more financial
(15:02):
than anything else. I don't think it's about sobriety. Oh
here's an idea. Oh oh oh, just thought about this
is in the middle of a wedding. You have an
alcoholics anonymous meeting in the corner friends of Bill w
literally in the corner of your wedding.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Damn, that's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I have a story now that is a little problematic
air traffic controllers. We don't have enough of them. There
have been some way too many close calls. I want
to talk about if you want to be an air
traffic controller, what you get to go through. Because there's
a lot of discussion within the FAA about this, and
we'll do that until the end of the hour. KFI
(15:52):
AM six FORTYFI DAMN six forty will handle on Monday morning,
July twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Neil comes back.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Tomorrow, Neil save adri and Cumno comes back tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
A couple of stories we are looking at.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
A federal judge has dismiss the Trump administration lawsuit against
Chicago's sanctuary laws, and that is that the city would
not cooperate with federal laws in terms of picking up
illegal migrants, and an internal US government review found no evidence.
(16:31):
And by the way, the world humanitarian aid organizations also
found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of the
US funded humanitarian aid in Gaza. Even as Netagnau who
says there is no starvation, it doesn't exist, and you
have to, I guess, ignore the video of those kids
(16:53):
wasting away. Where you have those kids weighing thirty pounds
and they're five years old. That doesn't exist. It's horrific.
All right, Now, let's talk about some problems at home.
There is a story about the an air traffic controller
training named Ryan Higgins, and his first few days on
(17:16):
the job, he was guiding a plane at Oakland and
he deleted the plane's data data from the radar screen
for a moment. He sort of just screwed it up,
and it was frantic for a few moments. Oh my god,
the plane has disappeared off the screen. What is going on. Well,
(17:37):
the experienced controllers came back and we're overseeing it, made
sure the plane was fine on a safe path, and
he was totally rattled. Higgins was totally rattled and got
yelled at right there in front of everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Well here we go.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
By that point, Higgins, who has a college degree and
is a trainee, and I'll tell you a little bit
about what it takes to even to a trainee. He
already felt slided by the veteran controllers who are responsible
for training recruits.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
They're the ones that train.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's not the job training after you finish the academy,
and so they have an apprenticeship system and Higgins watched
another trainee get cursed out in front of everybody. The
center's equipment was outdated. We know that technology made it
difficult to even understand the pilot's communication, and after three
(18:35):
years of training, he would be working in a job
at six day work weeks and assigned to places where
he would have to move to. So I feel kind
of miserable going to work and being berated when I'm
just trying to learn. So you know what he did,
he quit, He's done, and this is far from unusual.
(18:56):
There's a Washington Post examination they did. Worry also interviews
with trainees who were going through this as a career
being a controller and washed out. And this high dropout
rate is a leading cause of a dangerous shortage of
(19:18):
air traffic controllers we have. In some cases, the recruits
are simply fail their training and are dismissed because the
standards still are very high, and others they just quit
because of the instruction very haphazard, the dysfunction in.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The system, the abusive conditions.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I guess you don't file lawsuits and attack the FAA
for being abused.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Those don't exist now.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The FAA apploy employs about eleven five hundred certified controllers,
which is three thousand short, and that effects almost every
airport in the country all kinds of flight delays. Do
you know that when you're delayed and you're on the
tarmac where you're at the gate and you're waiting forever,
(20:12):
and you think it's weather, you think it's too many planes,
you think it's delayed planes. Quite often it means that
there are not enough air traffic controllers, and no one
thinks about that. About twenty percent of the trainees don't
certify at their first assigned facility.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Some of them get a second chance, and.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Almost fourteen hundred recruits hired since twenty ten never become
a controller, and the figure is a lot worse.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
If you look at individual centers.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
At a lot of individual air traffic hubs, to wash
out rates are far worse than.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The FAA average.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Oakland, forty five percent of trainees fail to earn full certification.
Means they're on their own and they can run airplanes
or decide where airplanes go and basically do the job
by themselves. At a key New York facility, one of
the busiest ones, the failure rate was sixty nine percent,
(21:18):
Almost three out of four just failed out. So how
do you become a controller if you want to become
a controller. Well, first of all, of course, you're entirely
trained by the FAA. I don't think they have controller
school now. You can learn if you're in the service.
If you were in the Armed Services, let's say the
(21:40):
Air Force and you were a controller there, then you
have some learning behind you. But for the most part,
new controllers are almost entirely trained by the agency.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You have to pass the.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Screening test and a background check, and there is the academy.
You get to go to the controller academy. I didn't
even know there was one. And once someone finishes the
three to four month academy, they're then assigned to one
of the hundreds of facilities around the country for their apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
And let me tell you how long that takes.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's by far the longest phase of their training, lasting
between eighteen months at the absolute minimum. Assuming you are
a genius and you're doing this perfectly, and you're one
of those people that adapt and you're good at it,
you can pull it off in eighteen months. It can
take up to four years. Most people somewhere in between,
(22:44):
and that's because, well, it's a tough job and you
really have to know what you're doing, and so it
can be up to four years before someone becomes fully
certified and doesn't work under anybody and is able to
sit in front of a our screen and make all
the decisions and move the airplanes around by themselves. All right,
(23:06):
we come back. I'm going to talk a little bit
more about this. As we finished the show on a
Monday morning by am six forty bill here, excuse me,
he is a Monday morning, July twenty eight. Tomorrow morning.
Everybody is back our normal crew. Sam, who is filling
(23:27):
in for Kono, is gone today after the show, and
Neil comes back and Will Coleschreiber, who is stuffing his
face right now.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I have no idea what that bet.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You're you should be ashamed of yourself by the way
door beating on the air.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's a store bought bagel. I know you hate those.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
No, those are not bagels. Store bought bagels are bread. Okay,
that's it. Do not give me the word bagel with
a store bought piece of bread.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I want to go back and finish the show with
the problem with air traffic controllers and there's such a
shortage of them and that becomes downright dangerous, I mean
really dangerous. Have you noticed how many stories recently have
been of close contacts planes on fire, collisions or near collisions.
(24:26):
I mean last night I was watching the news, one
near collision, one at least one fire and that was
last night, And over the week it's been well it's
been dozens over the last couple of months. And is
the problem air traffic controllers. Well, they haven't exactly put
(24:46):
the two together. When we talk about that horrific crash
between the airplane and the helicopter at Reagan Airport in Washington, DC.
I'm getting different reports as to there were plenty of
trollers there to they were short of controllers. But the
bottom line is the FAA is short of controllers.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And for decades now there has been a shortage of
air traffic controllers. Now under the Trump administration, it has
vowed to improve the academy because remember there's academy that
goes for three or four months because well, increase readiness,
retention of recruits.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
They just have to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
When trainees graduate from the academy and they reach the
control towers. Most are insufficiently prepared to manage flights. Why
because it's a very busy, it's a very high stress condition,
and it is well, it's almost impossible to do well.
(25:55):
So the agency, the FAA, is making an effort to
improve the quality of on the job training, installing more
simulators at towers because, as one perspective controller said, we
sit around and watch a whole lot and spin our wheels. Well,
if they had simulators and spent the money, well they'd
(26:18):
have to ad virtually every control tower, the major control
towers in the country. That would give potential controllers to
not only become certified much quicker, but also gain the
experience they need without risking people's lives. So the FAA
is embarking on a fresh complaint fresh program to do
(26:40):
exactly that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
How about the pay, well, not too well.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Starting pay for trainees once I think you even start
the academy is fifty five thousand dollars a year. You know,
that's not a lot of money, But the agency is
offering bonuses when trainees hit milestones and certified controllers. They
can get up to and over two hundred thousand dollars
a year, depending on the location and depending on how
(27:10):
much overtime, because it looks like they can owe all
the overtime they need and want because of the shortage.
The FAA said, successfully completing the training to become an
air traffic controller is not easy.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
It shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
The FAA will maintain high standards, no kidding, regardless of
the failure rate. The stakes are too high. Who's going
to say no to that. One an experienced controller, said
that the training is intense. It is rigorous by design.
They want to make it. It's almost like boot camp
(27:46):
where they want to make it as.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Difficult as possible.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's almost like the Seals with Hell Week. That week
that Seals go through absolute health hell, no sleep, running
at twenty hours a day, balls to the wall, and
very few maked.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That's sort of the analogy here.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
And so one controller describe that tough treatment as part
of the test.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And here is the problem.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
These are older white guys and there isn't a lot
of political correctness going on, and they can be brutal
because that's the culture. Minorities, well, the minorities are saying
they get treated worse.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Women no surprise there get treated worse.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Trainee said that the trainers belittle them, telling them they're
expected to fail. Back we go to boot camp, you're
a miserable worm. You're never going to make it. And
they said, it's really difficult to adapt. Now again, the
experienced controllers, the trainer that are experienced that these kids
(29:02):
or these people work under them are saying, that's part
of it.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
We've got to make it this tough.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, the FAA has been warned for years, you've got
to improve your training.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You can't just do that. Situation has actually grown worse.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Training is taking longer, in some cases more than seven
years to become certified. Failure rates are climbing. Now, keep
in mind, keep in mind every time someone quits or
is dumped, once they hit a control tower, that's an
investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars per person. Quintin Miles,
(29:41):
a retired air traffic controller and a training manager, said,
there's no standard, there's.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No consistent approach.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
There is nothing that makes one center better than the other,
than the staff, and they have to do it on
their own. So we're in a mess with air traffic controllers.
I don't know how they do it. Overseas because every country,
of course has its own air traffic controllers.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But also and this.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Was many, many years ago, if you remember, this was
during the Reagan years when air traffic controller there was
a union that was created. In those days, if you
worked for the government, you really couldn't form a union.
You were not allowed to strike. And the air Traffic
Controllers PATCO I think the union it was called, they
(30:31):
decided to strike and Ronald Reagan fired.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Every one of them.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Every air traffic controller that joined the strike was tossed
and was banned for life and couldn't come back. And
it wasn't as bad then as it is now. All right, guys,
we're done. Gary and Shannon up next. Tomorrow morning, Amy
and Will are here at five o'clock, and then Neil
(31:02):
comes back tomorrow. Neil and I join the fray at
six o'clock. Sam has been with us. Let me see,
I'm in days, yeah, one day, and Kono comes back
tomorrow and of course and is always here.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
All right, we're done, guys. Gary Shannon up next.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
As I said, this is KFI AM six. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle show. Catch my show Monday
through Friday. Six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listenings k I AM six forty the bill Handle
show on demand on the iHeartRadio f.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
JF I AM forty bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here it is a Monday morning, July twenty eight, and
a couple of stories we are looking at. First of all,
Thailand and Cambodia good news, that's good news, have agreed
to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Just took a few days.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, these are two countries that wanted a ceasefire, unlike
what's going on with the rest of the world read
Russia and Ukraine. Guys, what's happening there? All right, that's
enough for that. We have tons of those. But I
want to get into what's going on with the universities
in this country. All right now, Columbia just just announced
(00:55):
it had made a deal with the federal government of
just Democratic strategist James Carville ripped into Columbia University for
agreeing to pay two hundred and twenty one million dollars
to the administration to restore the school's federal funding. Now,
(01:16):
a couple of things I want to share with you.
I don't remember any administration saying to any major university
one we're gonna stop federal funding if you don't do
a the other one, if you don't do a on
(01:36):
top of that, we're gonna take over. We're gonna remove
your accreditation. And that's what's happening with Harvard. Harvard is
in caving. And this has to do with dei programs,
This has to do with wokeness, This has to do
with anti Semitism on campus because Jewish students are being harassed,
in some cases not being allowed to go into class
(02:00):
because of the pro Palestinian demonstrations that are going on.
You know that if you go to university today, and
this has gone forever, ever since the war, ever since
the sixty seven war. So how many years ago is
that the schools have been pro Palestinian. They've been anti Israeli,
(02:21):
the oppressors, the Israelis. I mean, I remember when I
went to college, and that was a few years ago.
It was the Palestinians, the poor Palestinians. So let's divest
any school money that's being invested in Israel. I. Mean,
that's just sort of a given, and it was accepted. Well,
(02:44):
it was accepted because number one, the professors all have
tenure and the universities are a bastion of free speech,
and if you want to go and demonstrate in favor
of the Palestinians, you have the right to do that. Well,
you have an administration now that is about pro Israel
as you can get and has said to these universities
(03:04):
you're done, you are done with this anti semitism. You
have to stop the demonstrations that even cross the line
of or across the line other than just standing up
there im peaceably demonstrating with the flags whatever you want
in certain areas. Oh by the way, not on school grounds.
(03:30):
So the administration has been saying to these major universities.
Columbia I don't think has been a disappoint charged with
or has been extorted in this case with removing its accreditation.
Harvard certainly has in addition to federal funding. So here's
what the administration is doing. Just cutting off federal funding.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The reality is, there's virtually no school in this country,
no university in this country that doesn't have federal funding
running part of it. And where does it come from, Well,
federal funding. And the president has the ability to say no.
Some lawsuits are flying on that one too, and so
Columbia caved. Okay, we're going to do whatever you say.
(04:17):
And here's James Carvell, democratic strategist responsible for Bill Clinton's election.
I've never seen such cowards in my life. My head
is off to hot Harvard. At least they have guts.
So Columbia University announced it agreed to a two hundred
million dollars settlement with a federal government over its anti
(04:37):
semitism or allowing anti semitism. That's paid over the next
three years twenty one million dollars to the US Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, and acting Columbia University president said this
agreement marks an important step forward after a period of
sustained federal scrutiny and institutional un certainty.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh wow, how.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
About we caved after the threats that were made to us?
And I'm pro Israel, but stopping students from going into
class that crosses the line and allowing that to happen,
that crosses the line. So Claire Shipman, the acting president,
said the settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values
(05:26):
that define us and allow our essential research partnership with
the federal government to get back on track. That's another
way of saying we caved. We want the money. We
need the money, So whatever the Feds want, whatever the
administration wants, we're going to go ahead and do it.
Columbia lost four hundred million dollars in federal funding earlier
(05:47):
of the year after the administration cut it off over
a probe of anti semitism, So the school is arguing
the deal will allow the institution to keep its academic
independent Hang on a minute, Okay, we're caving to what
the federal administration wants. What the administration wants, we're going
(06:08):
to do everything it said, but we are going to
be academically independent independent, really at least be honest about
it and say, we need the federal dollars. And we
have no choice because we're going to lose all of.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Our medical research.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We're going to lose all of the lab work that's
going on right now. We're going to lose it all
because we won't have the money. So we had to cave.
Oh no, no, no, We now have independence and we
are thrilled with the government relinquishing its issue of stopping
the federal funding, and we're doing exactly what they want.
(06:51):
DII program's gone. Affirmative action of any kind gone. The
anti Semitism as the administration views the anti semitism gone,
So the President wrote on social media, it's a great
honor to have been involved.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And mandated and you don't do it? There's no money
and there goes accreditation. Oh God. I want to thank
and congratulate Secretary Linda McMahon who and all those who
worked on this important deal with us. I also want
to thank and commend Columbia University for agreeing to do
(07:33):
what's right. I look forward to watching them have a
great future in our country, maybe greater than ever before.
Jerry Nadler, Republican Representative. He's a Democrat from New York,
probably one of the better known congress people, said my
(07:54):
alma mater he went to. Columbia has allowed a once
highly respected institution to succumb to the Trump administration's coercive
and exploitative tactics. Columbia has effectively waived the white flag
of surrender in the battle at the heart of the
Trump Administration's war on higher education.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And academic freedom. I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Even though I think there is anti semitism on campus,
I do believe that it's pure coercion, that's all.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's extortion. It'ssess simple, and.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Harvard is they're holding fast.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Harvard isn't caving. At this point. Harvard may actually lose
its accreditation. Can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Harvard may lose its accreditation the number one university in
the United States, and the administration is talking about two
billion dollars being cut off. Okay, coming out for those
of you women folk who take Uber. And there's been
(09:03):
some big issues with Uber in terms of sexual harassment
and inappropriate behavior by Uber drivers. There's something brand new
that uber is has introduced and I'll tell you about
that coming up, Kay, fine, am six forty bill handle
here on a Monday morning, July twenty eight. Now, I
(09:26):
was gonna do the Uber story about women asking for
women drivers, but I'm gonna do that tomorrow because I'd
rather have fun with this one that came up. And
this has to do with dry weddings. Huh no, booze weddings.
(09:49):
I don't get Yeah. Will's looking at me and going
what is that about. I mean, even if you have
people that don't drink, For example, I don't drink, and
so at my wedding that we had in March. It
was an open bar, not even this no host bar business.
And keep in mind, my side does not drink. Lindsey's side, well,
(10:15):
let me put it this way. Her entire family and
friends got on the tables naked and started dancing. Let's
just say they do a fair amount of drinking. I
mean we had champagne on the table. Each of them
were chugging the champagne from the bottle. I mean they
are pretty good drinkers. But there's this thing going on
(10:37):
about dry weddings. I mean it's a thing.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Wow. I don't get it. This out of the Wall
Street Journal.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
They did a whole thing on this, because an open
bar was usually the sign of a great party. I
don't know how you can't. And here's what's going on.
There's loud and proud sobriety out there now. So alcohol
is no longer a must have for couples on their
wedding day. Mocktails, coffee, soda, coffee, you know, the station's
(11:10):
everybody is stone cold sober.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
How do you do that? Don't you know?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There's always an uncle who is out there, you know,
ripping off his clothes and going around and patting women's behinds.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
There's an influencer in Atlanta, Shabon McCaffrey, and she talks
about a dry wedding she went to two years ago
as the worst wedding I've ever been to.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Of course it was.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
And your wedding is not only about you. It's all
about making a good experience.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For the guests. And why do you go for a wedding.
Why do you go to a wedding?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Is it because you care about those people? Of course,
not my wedding or the wedding. For example, I threw
for my daughter Barbara, right. I mean, the only thing
that made it even stomachable was the fact that everybody
got drunk. I mean the fact that you know everybody
(12:10):
nobody's drinking. Give me a break on that one. Now,
most weddings are still boozy. There was a survey done
on a wedding planning website called Zola, and only six
percent say they would have a complete alcohol free wedding.
(12:32):
Now here's what's going on. A lot of couples are
just kicking back and only allowing, for example, wine and
beer and not hard liquor because it's just expensive. And
the problem is, for most part is just more expensive
to do a wedding. Weddings are so expensive. I cannot
believe it. Cannot told Barbara her second wedding. By the way,
(12:56):
I told her that night in front of her husband.
They'd been married for ten minutes. I said, your next
wedding is going to be you in front of an
Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas and you're gonna have cokes.
That's going to be your wedding because of the money. Now,
needless say, her husband wasn't thrilled with that. For most people,
(13:18):
a dry wedding is just insane, makes no sense, and
you were married obviously, she listens.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
No, she doesn't have her headset on honestly, what's next?
Are they going to just start doing brown bag weddings
where you just make your own sandwich and bring with
you a bad idea brown You don't know you have
a sandwich bar. You know what?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's not bad when you think about it. A sandwich bar.
I'd have Brents cater it and layout, the bagels and
the bread. I've been to those those are great, So
don't knock it until you've tried it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
With a big pile of Zilman's at the end.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You have to. Oh, yeah, you have to, because there'd
be a lot of bagels and locks, like Brentsia the
other day when we were celebrating thirty two years of
this show, and there were the locks, there was a
cream cheese, there were the onions that were there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Here at a bageld wedding. That wouldn't be bad. That
wouldn't be bad.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So one of the people interviewed for this, Nathaniel Lieberman,
got married last September and he booked a fire hall
a fire station, I guess, for a couple of extra bucks,
and they don't allow alcohol on the premises. He hired
(14:41):
a coffee cart. Come on, really, just needzed? All right,
We're done with that dry weddings insanity. Although it's happening.
The thing is growing, but I think it's more financial
(15:02):
than anything else. I don't think it's about sobriety. Oh
here's an idea. Oh oh oh, just thought about this
is in the middle of a wedding. You have an
alcoholics anonymous meeting in the corner friends of Bill w
literally in the corner of your wedding.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Damn, that's good, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I have a story now that is a little problematic
air traffic controllers. We don't have enough of them. There
have been some way too many close calls. I want
to talk about if you want to be an air
traffic controller, what you get to go through. Because there's
a lot of discussion within the FAA about this, and
we'll do that until the end of the hour. KFI
(15:52):
AM six FORTYFI DAMN six forty will handle on Monday morning,
July twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Neil comes back.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Tomorrow, Neil save adri and Cumno comes back tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
A couple of stories we are looking at.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
A federal judge has dismiss the Trump administration lawsuit against
Chicago's sanctuary laws, and that is that the city would
not cooperate with federal laws in terms of picking up
illegal migrants, and an internal US government review found no evidence.
(16:31):
And by the way, the world humanitarian aid organizations also
found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of the
US funded humanitarian aid in Gaza. Even as Netagnau who
says there is no starvation, it doesn't exist, and you
have to, I guess, ignore the video of those kids
(16:53):
wasting away. Where you have those kids weighing thirty pounds
and they're five years old. That doesn't exist. It's horrific.
All right, Now, let's talk about some problems at home.
There is a story about the an air traffic controller
training named Ryan Higgins, and his first few days on
(17:16):
the job, he was guiding a plane at Oakland and
he deleted the plane's data data from the radar screen
for a moment. He sort of just screwed it up,
and it was frantic for a few moments. Oh my god,
the plane has disappeared off the screen. What is going on. Well,
(17:37):
the experienced controllers came back and we're overseeing it, made
sure the plane was fine on a safe path, and
he was totally rattled. Higgins was totally rattled and got
yelled at right there in front of everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Well here we go.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
By that point, Higgins, who has a college degree and
is a trainee, and I'll tell you a little bit
about what it takes to even to a trainee. He
already felt slided by the veteran controllers who are responsible
for training recruits.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
They're the ones that train.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's not the job training after you finish the academy,
and so they have an apprenticeship system and Higgins watched
another trainee get cursed out in front of everybody. The
center's equipment was outdated. We know that technology made it
difficult to even understand the pilot's communication, and after three
(18:35):
years of training, he would be working in a job
at six day work weeks and assigned to places where
he would have to move to. So I feel kind
of miserable going to work and being berated when I'm
just trying to learn. So you know what he did,
he quit, He's done, and this is far from unusual.
(18:56):
There's a Washington Post examination they did. Worry also interviews
with trainees who were going through this as a career
being a controller and washed out. And this high dropout
rate is a leading cause of a dangerous shortage of
(19:18):
air traffic controllers we have. In some cases, the recruits
are simply fail their training and are dismissed because the
standards still are very high, and others they just quit
because of the instruction very haphazard, the dysfunction in.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
The system, the abusive conditions.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I guess you don't file lawsuits and attack the FAA
for being abused.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Those don't exist now.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
The FAA apploy employs about eleven five hundred certified controllers,
which is three thousand short, and that effects almost every
airport in the country all kinds of flight delays. Do
you know that when you're delayed and you're on the
tarmac where you're at the gate and you're waiting forever,
(20:12):
and you think it's weather, you think it's too many planes,
you think it's delayed planes. Quite often it means that
there are not enough air traffic controllers, and no one
thinks about that. About twenty percent of the trainees don't
certify at their first assigned facility.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Some of them get a second chance, and.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Almost fourteen hundred recruits hired since twenty ten never become
a controller, and the figure is a lot worse.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
If you look at individual centers.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
At a lot of individual air traffic hubs, to wash
out rates are far worse than.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The FAA average.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Oakland, forty five percent of trainees fail to earn full certification.
Means they're on their own and they can run airplanes
or decide where airplanes go and basically do the job
by themselves. At a key New York facility, one of
the busiest ones, the failure rate was sixty nine percent,
(21:18):
Almost three out of four just failed out. So how
do you become a controller if you want to become
a controller. Well, first of all, of course, you're entirely
trained by the FAA. I don't think they have controller
school now. You can learn if you're in the service.
If you were in the Armed Services, let's say the
(21:40):
Air Force and you were a controller there, then you
have some learning behind you. But for the most part,
new controllers are almost entirely trained by the agency.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You have to pass the.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Screening test and a background check, and there is the academy.
You get to go to the controller academy. I didn't
even know there was one. And once someone finishes the
three to four month academy, they're then assigned to one
of the hundreds of facilities around the country for their apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
And let me tell you how long that takes.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's by far the longest phase of their training, lasting
between eighteen months at the absolute minimum. Assuming you are
a genius and you're doing this perfectly, and you're one
of those people that adapt and you're good at it,
you can pull it off in eighteen months. It can
take up to four years. Most people somewhere in between,
(22:44):
and that's because, well, it's a tough job and you
really have to know what you're doing, and so it
can be up to four years before someone becomes fully
certified and doesn't work under anybody and is able to
sit in front of a our screen and make all
the decisions and move the airplanes around by themselves. All right,
(23:06):
we come back. I'm going to talk a little bit
more about this. As we finished the show on a
Monday morning by am six forty bill here, excuse me,
he is a Monday morning, July twenty eight. Tomorrow morning.
Everybody is back our normal crew. Sam, who is filling
(23:27):
in for Kono, is gone today after the show, and
Neil comes back and Will Coleschreiber, who is stuffing his
face right now.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I have no idea what that bet.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
You're you should be ashamed of yourself by the way
door beating on the air.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's a store bought bagel. I know you hate those.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
No, those are not bagels. Store bought bagels are bread. Okay,
that's it. Do not give me the word bagel with
a store bought piece of bread.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I want to go back and finish the show with
the problem with air traffic controllers and there's such a
shortage of them and that becomes downright dangerous, I mean
really dangerous. Have you noticed how many stories recently have
been of close contacts planes on fire, collisions or near collisions.
(24:26):
I mean last night I was watching the news, one
near collision, one at least one fire and that was
last night, And over the week it's been well it's
been dozens over the last couple of months. And is
the problem air traffic controllers. Well, they haven't exactly put
(24:46):
the two together. When we talk about that horrific crash
between the airplane and the helicopter at Reagan Airport in Washington, DC.
I'm getting different reports as to there were plenty of
trollers there to they were short of controllers. But the
bottom line is the FAA is short of controllers.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And for decades now there has been a shortage of
air traffic controllers. Now under the Trump administration, it has
vowed to improve the academy because remember there's academy that
goes for three or four months because well, increase readiness,
retention of recruits.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
They just have to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
When trainees graduate from the academy and they reach the
control towers. Most are insufficiently prepared to manage flights. Why
because it's a very busy, it's a very high stress condition,
and it is well, it's almost impossible to do well.
(25:55):
So the agency, the FAA, is making an effort to
improve the quality of on the job training, installing more
simulators at towers because, as one perspective controller said, we
sit around and watch a whole lot and spin our wheels. Well,
if they had simulators and spent the money, well they'd
(26:18):
have to ad virtually every control tower, the major control
towers in the country. That would give potential controllers to
not only become certified much quicker, but also gain the
experience they need without risking people's lives. So the FAA
is embarking on a fresh complaint fresh program to do
(26:40):
exactly that.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
How about the pay, well, not too well.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Starting pay for trainees once I think you even start
the academy is fifty five thousand dollars a year. You know,
that's not a lot of money, But the agency is
offering bonuses when trainees hit milestones and certified controllers. They
can get up to and over two hundred thousand dollars
a year, depending on the location and depending on how
(27:10):
much overtime, because it looks like they can owe all
the overtime they need and want because of the shortage.
The FAA said, successfully completing the training to become an
air traffic controller is not easy.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
It shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
The FAA will maintain high standards, no kidding, regardless of
the failure rate. The stakes are too high. Who's going
to say no to that. One an experienced controller, said
that the training is intense. It is rigorous by design.
They want to make it. It's almost like boot camp
(27:46):
where they want to make it as.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Difficult as possible.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's almost like the Seals with Hell Week. That week
that Seals go through absolute health hell, no sleep, running
at twenty hours a day, balls to the wall, and
very few maked.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
That's sort of the analogy here.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
And so one controller describe that tough treatment as part
of the test.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And here is the problem.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
These are older white guys and there isn't a lot
of political correctness going on, and they can be brutal
because that's the culture. Minorities, well, the minorities are saying
they get treated worse.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Women no surprise there get treated worse.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Trainee said that the trainers belittle them, telling them they're
expected to fail. Back we go to boot camp, you're
a miserable worm. You're never going to make it. And
they said, it's really difficult to adapt. Now again, the
experienced controllers, the trainer that are experienced that these kids
(29:02):
or these people work under them are saying, that's part
of it.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
We've got to make it this tough.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, the FAA has been warned for years, you've got
to improve your training.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You can't just do that. Situation has actually grown worse.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Training is taking longer, in some cases more than seven
years to become certified. Failure rates are climbing. Now, keep
in mind, keep in mind every time someone quits or
is dumped, once they hit a control tower, that's an
investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars per person. Quintin Miles,
(29:41):
a retired air traffic controller and a training manager, said,
there's no standard, there's.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
No consistent approach.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
There is nothing that makes one center better than the other,
than the staff, and they have to do it on
their own. So we're in a mess with air traffic controllers.
I don't know how they do it. Overseas because every country,
of course has its own air traffic controllers.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But also and this.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Was many, many years ago, if you remember, this was
during the Reagan years when air traffic controller there was
a union that was created. In those days, if you
worked for the government, you really couldn't form a union.
You were not allowed to strike. And the air Traffic
Controllers PATCO I think the union it was called, they
(30:31):
decided to strike and Ronald Reagan fired.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Every one of them.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Every air traffic controller that joined the strike was tossed
and was banned for life and couldn't come back. And
it wasn't as bad then as it is now. All right, guys,
we're done. Gary and Shannon up next. Tomorrow morning, Amy
and Will are here at five o'clock, and then Neil
(31:02):
comes back tomorrow. Neil and I join the fray at
six o'clock. Sam has been with us. Let me see,
I'm in days, yeah, one day, and Kono comes back
tomorrow and of course and is always here.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
All right, we're done, guys. Gary Shannon up next.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
As I said, this is KFI AM six. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle show. Catch my show Monday
through Friday. Six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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