July 14, 2025 • 31 mins
Tim Conway Jr. is back from vacation and jumps straight into the headlines! He kicks off the show with ABC’s Alex Stone to discuss new developments in the deadly Air India 787 crash investigation. Then, it’s traffic trouble on the I-15, and Tim wonders if the LA Olympics—just three years away—still hold the excitement they once did. KFI’s own Michael Monks joins to break down the latest homelessness numbers and how LA is defining "progress." Finally, retired LAFD Captain Steve Kreager calls in to talk fire protocols and the chaos on the freeway caused by a truck fire.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM
A six Forty's Conway Show. All right back in town.
Who cares Angel Martinez? Before we get into Alex Stone,
Angel Martinez, you said there's a five to six to
ten mile backup somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, seven to eight mile backup. This is on the
fifteen northbound lanes are closed right outside of Baker, and
this is going to a big rig fire, and they
were having some problems getting some water out to the
scene here. At one point, flames from this fire were
shooting one hundred feet straight up into the air.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What's what's on fire out there? The big rig? Oh,
the big rig. But he's carrying batteries.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's one of those deals, you know, where the these
batteries for cars and will be on fire for four days,
you know.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Could be.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I mean, I don't know what the contents of the
trailer are, but if it's full of batteries, it's gonna
take a long time to put out those flying all right.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So people have asked this again, where is it northbound
near Baker?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, right outside of Baker. Before Baker on the north fifteen.
That's where northbound lanes are closed. They are turning traffic
around Sysix Road, so they're going to force you to
go southbound on the southbound side of the fifteen. At
the scene of this fire. They have the left lane
closes idea okay, yeah, so that's pushing the drive back
(01:30):
for about about seven and a half miles. Northbound is
slowing for about eight miles, right, Okay, we'll.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Keep on top of that. Thank you, Angel Martinez. You
got all right. Let's get to Alex Stone. Alex, how
you bob ing dago that dong with you? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Mandy there on the freeway start behind that fire. Listening
to KFI.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, they're all on their way to Vegas or you know,
on their way to Utah. A lot of listeners go
to Utah for the summer or wherever you're going. Vegas
on a Monday, oh man, you know when you're when
you leave, you know, like at noon on a Monday,
you think, Okay, there's not gonna be any traffic. I
don't want to go at night or in the morning
when there's traffic, and then you get snarled and stuck
in one of those things.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You know, it could be deadly.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You know, it's it's one hundred degrees out there, and
if you didn't, you know, prep for it.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You don't have water, you don't have food.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Maybe the kids are in diapers and they're resting all
over the back of the car.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's it could be a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Absolutely, you're running low on gas, right, just make it
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Then beyond where we are and then right, Or how
about you you're one of these, you know, gamblers, one
of these uh, you know, guys who take chances in life.
And he's going to take your electric car to Vegas.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
That's over sitting there, Yeah, that's does it called idling
in an electric car? What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And you're sitting there running the air condition and then
you don't run the air conditioning because you don't want
to burn out the battery. You sit there one hundred
and five degrees and you're like, God a mighty, why
did I get this?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Why did I get this?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So we got information coming out of India that big
plane crash.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
So you remember a couple of weeks ago and and
June and the bowing seven eighty seven Dreamliner that it
was seen on video taking off then then kind of
pancaking down, just flat falling. It would look like a
stall that clearly they didn't have engine power, and then
it went into a building and a number of people
were killed on the ground and all but one killed
on board. In total, two hundred and sixty people were killed.
(03:13):
But just like the US, India's government they followed the
NTSB model and about six weeks after an incident, an
aviation incident, they put out a preliminary report, and then
a year later they put out the cause of their
findings and put everything together. But typically in these preliminary reports,
it's kind of everything we know, it's just factual information.
(03:34):
But this one had some real surprise at things in it.
That one, the fuel switches were turned off moments after
the plane lifted off from the runway, and that did
what the fuel switches are designed to do, turned off
the engines, stopped fuel flowing into those engines. And those
switches tim are right below the thrust levers on every
(03:55):
Boeing aircraft on seven thirty seven, triple seven, seven eighty seven,
they're all the same, so every pilot knows them. It
is very clear what they are. John Nant's former seven
thirty seven pilot or Abe Sentwers Aviation Consultants, saying, hm,
that tells him something.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Somebody turned the engines off and they would have known,
since these are two qualified pilots, they would have known
what the consequences were. So either there was a mental aberration.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Or it was purposeful.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
There is not a procedure in the world that on
takeoff you would turn both of those engines off, no
matter what the situation are.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
They covered like there's a dump button here at Kfine,
if somebody swears or says something stupid, I got to
pull the plastic up and then hit that dump button.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
There's no protection.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well there is, so yeah, these switches they've got a
locking mechanism and then they're spring loaded, so they've got
to pull them out and go around a metal gate.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Somebody s pose.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Then, so yeah, it makes it so they can't be
accidentally switched. Now that they got to pull them over.
They got to do this thing. It's no bumping it
with your elbow or vibrating on takeoff that they move
the head of Air India, he says that he's coming
on people not to speculate that one of the pilots
did it on purpose that they don't know yet. We
also know from this what the pilots were saying in
(05:06):
the cockpit. One more for you, Steve Ganyard or other
aviation analysts. He's gone through the transcript. Here's what they
were saying.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
We do know that one of the pilots asked the
other pilot, why did you move those switches?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Why did you cut off the fuel to both of
the engines. The other pilot said, I didn't do it.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Now they don't identify which pilot, if it's a captain
or the first officer, if it's the flying pilot or
the non flying pilot, which who's talking to who in this?
But I mean, you could argue that even the person
who did it, if they did it intentionally knowing they're
being recorded, could say, hey, why'd you do that, you know,
to try to throw off investigators. But one pilot accuses
the other of shutting off the engines right after they
(05:42):
lift off. Then they tried to restart the engines, and
one began to just produce a little bit of thrust
to a spooling back up when they hit the ground.
The other one had just reignited but hadn't actually begun
spinning yet and producing any thrust, And then they had
they had a little bit more out too, they probably
would have had more time to do that, but they
(06:03):
just didn't. So it was either a major mistake that
the captain had fourteen thousand flying hours a first officer
I think around three thousand. That unlikely that there's no
reason why their hands would have ever been down there. Murder, Yeah,
you know, the switches are independent. If one has a problem,
the other one's not going to do the same thing.
(06:25):
Was it some weird big flaw on the Dreamliner? Probably not?
Or was this a big murder suicide? And we've seen
it before eurowings that went into the side of a
mountain a number of years ago. Still many believed that
the Malaysia Airline was There been others around the world,
but somehow that switch got both of them switches got
turned off and they did what they're designed to do,
(06:47):
and they shut off the engine.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know the one.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Alex dowswilis from ABC News. While it was off last week,
I was looking through YouTube and I saw this they're doing.
It's not a documentary, but It's like a news piece
that they did in India where the guy who survived
the plane crash was going to go home, and they
followed him in the hospital. Then they followed him home
and they did interviews with him. And he's sitting in
(07:09):
his living room and he's watching TV. The windows are open,
the fans on. You can hear the fan. And it's
the first day back and he's sitting in the living room.
And then the second day back, he goes in the
backyard and he comes back to the living room. He's
sitting on the couch. And on the second day, this
guy's on the couch. The wife from the kitchen says, hey, honey,
when are you going back to work?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Time to go back over? How about that two days?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You get a day and a half on the couch
and she's banging on you to get back into the office.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Honey, I just survived the plane crash. Can I get
one more day?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's right, I'm the only one that survived. How many
people died on that plane It was one hundred two
d and sixty. Two hundred and sixty people died. This
one guy survives. He's taking a breather with it looks
like a beer on the on a couch and she's
banging on him.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
You know, it makes no sense. So this guy survived.
When you look at the wreckage left behind, the only
thing that survived was a tail and some of the
wings coming out of the building. And that he tells
the story of somehow.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
He got booted out of there.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And he was the one guy who all of a
sudden was in rubble going, whoa what just went on? Yeah,
and that everybody else and all the people on the
ground that has seven eighty seven landed on them.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Buddy, I appreciate you coming on. Welcome back, and well yeah, well,
thank you very much. We'll speak you real soon. You
got at thanks man. Alex Stone with ABC News. Yeah,
big beds door story out of India. That's horrible, all right,
we got a lot to cover. The northbound fifteen is
screwed up. There's a truck on fire right outside of Baker.
(08:41):
So if you're going northbound, you're going to I don't know,
you're driving cross country with your buddies. You're on a
big road trip. You're going to Vegas, You're going to Utah,
wherever you're going Nevada. You're going to be hammered with
this thing. It's a five six seven mile back up.
Doesn't look like there's any ending insight. We'll keep an
eye on it because I know you're listening to KFI.
It's one of the few stations that comes in up there,
(09:02):
and the other station is the Desert Station. But they
do traffic on the hour and on the half, so
you could be sitting there for twenty five minutes with
an update on why you're sitting in one hundred degree heat.
But we do it a little more often here with
Angel Martinez.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There is a huge backup on the fifteen. If you're
going northbound, you're going towards Vegas. Right as you cross
the forty, things are looking good. You got Peggy's SU's
fifty diner. Nobody's ever been there, but you passed it
a million times, and then you run into a little
bit of traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
You're like, oh, this is probably clear up. It's not.
It's not good.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Clear up.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
It is going to It happens before Baker. According to
Angel Martinez, who doesn't lie that often about traffic. They're
taking you off at Zizix Road and you're gonna have
to go back south and then get on the forty
and then go north on the forty on probably ninety
five to get around it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's only about a three hour workaround, So you should
be uh, you should enjoy that. Yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, Today is the day that the Olympics are
going to start. Three years from two day. Are we
ready for them? No, we're not even close. But they're
going to start whether we're ready or not. Three years
from today, July fourteenth, we're going to have the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't see any excitement yet. I don't say anyone
talking about it. I don't hear anybody, you know, none
of my relatives who live out of state or saying hey,
can we come hang with you and you know, get
grab an extra room or get a blow up bed
and crash your place. I've got none of that, none
of that action coming in. And I don't know if
(10:51):
it's going to either. I don't know if the Olympics
has the same attraction as they used to when we
used to play, you know, in the Olympics when when
the Russians and the United States got together, there was
a Cold War going on, and this is the only
time we really saw. We wanted to beat the hell
out of the Soviets in all the sports. But now
nobody really cares. I don't think, you know. And there's
(11:13):
it's always weird summer sports they introduce, like breakdancing.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Who's that chick?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It wasn't the breakdancing that ruined it for everybody from Australia.
It was like Shambeau or Bob her name, but she
had someone kind of a strange nickname that she had
and she destroyed it for everybody. Ray Gun that's right, Yeah,
ray Gun killed rap or break dancing.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It's over.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know what she's doing now, but she killed
the Olympic sport. But anyway, it was three years from
two day that we will all be celebrating the Olympics.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
A big day for seven hundred kids from all across
Los Angeles. They get to have play La day here
at the Coliseum and you see some of what they're doing,
the adaptive basketball game that is going on here in
front of us, and beyond that they have hockey, There
is football and soccer and so much for these kids
to do. And all of this is to get these
(12:15):
kids from across the city excited for Olympic style sports,
adaptive sports because remember the Paralympics are coming to Los
Angeles in twenty twenty eight as well. And this morning
a special ceremony as they lit the torch here at
the Memorial Coliseum. Hey, what an exciting morning to watch
(12:38):
that happen?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Really is it? That was really exciting? Huh? What an
exciting morning light the torch shirt?
Speaker 7 (12:53):
What an exciting morning to watch that happen, and all
of these kids out here get to be here for
that moment. The mayor talking about how she wants to
encourage kids to play sports. We also heard from the
CEO of LA twenty eight that's the.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Organized if you're not playing sports as a kid. I
don't know if the mayor coming out saying hey, you
should play sports turns your round. I think it just
sort of reminds you that you're not that good at it,
you know, and you're not going to play. Dad's not
into it, Mom's not into it. I can always tell,
like when I see people rioting or I see just
(13:28):
people at a park throwing a ball around. I can
always tell whether the dad spend time with the son
throwing the ball around. You can always tell in the
form that the sun has and how he throws the ball,
if dad spent any time with him on the field
throwing the ball around, you can always tell it's one
hundred percent. It's the easiest tell on a guy.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
King about how she wants to encourage kids to play sports.
We also heard from the CEO of LA twenty eight.
That's the organizing group that is helping with everything bringing
the games to Los Angeles and southern California in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It is a big exciting time.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Sports gives you so many benefits from health, to building relationships,
to discipline.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
This will be the biggest Olympics ever.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But they always say that about every Olympics. You know,
you have to say it. What are you going to say?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It's like it's like any elections. It's the most important
elections of our of all time.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's right, and you have what are you what else
are you going to say? This will be the fifteenth
largest Olympics of all time.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
To building relationships, to discipline and what is it.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
This will be the biggest Olympics ever.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I don't know about that. Let's I'm gonna stay on
high alert whether that's true or not.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
In the history of the Olympic movement, right here in LA,
it'll be the only Olympics that has had track and
field and sporting events in the same venue ever three times.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And Mayor Bass even put oh, I see what he
was clumsily saying, is it's the first time one facility
will host three different Olympics and that is the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Ever three times. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
And Mayor Bass even pointed out today that having the
Olympics here in southern California helps to fund programs like
play LA, where kids from all over the city can
enroll in sports for as little as ten dollars per season.
And for some families that really is helpful to get
their kids active and outdoors. But really exciting to know
(15:29):
that the Olympics three years away exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, three years from today, we'll start the Olympics. So
you guys all got to get ready, got to get
a fever pitch going. You know, the Olympics are coming
to LA. It's a big deal. But nobody's really excise
too far away, too far, all right, We'll keep an
eye on the five to fifteen, I mean the fifteen
freeway northbound right before Baker.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Baker's that small little crappy town that has.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The Alien Jerky Joint. The world's tallest thermometers also there
and about fifth teen fast food places.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And that's a wrap. Was that Greek place, wasn't it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, the mad the mad Greek, the mad Greek. Yeah,
the mad Greek. And and I love that mad Greek. Yeah,
the mad Greek's not bad. Mad Greek is not a
bad hang. But that is if you're coming home from Vegas.
You're going to Vegas, you are going to be wildly
impacted by what's going on out there.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And it's still very traffic e in the desert right
as you approach Baker and I. In the next segment,
at around four forty, we had Steve Krieger coming on
to talk about this incident. There's a truck on fire,
and he also has a visual of it as well.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
But it's a mess.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Getting out to Vegas northbound fifteen is an absolute mess.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You may want to good mar all.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Right, the owner of the world's greatest and most famous
couches here, Mike Monk, Michael Monks, how you.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Bub Where in the sam Hill have you been, buddy?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I can't look at a couch out of Macy's without
thinking of your crazy purchase.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
I really didn't expect it to be this much of
a topic of conversation around here, but it's given us
a lot of content, and I hope the listeners have
enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I think they have. I absolutely think they have.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So, homelessness in LA has gone down to zero. It
has not gone down to zero. In fact, it's a decreased,
closer to zero percent than in the other direction that
we want to see, but it has decreased again. So
homeless officials, the only homeless services authority and local government
government officials like Lamhor Bass spoke today releasing the data
(17:36):
from that annual count of homeless people on the streets,
and they say, for the second year in a row,
the number of homeless people living on the streets are
living in shelters has decreased. Well, what is the method
behind and how scientific is to count people are walking around?
Speaker 9 (17:51):
Well, they do have a scientific method behind this. This
is a scientifically backed survey. USC is involved, but the
organizer at USC does note there is a margin of
error involved here that could include upwards of thirteen hundred people. Okay,
and when we were talking about seventy four thousand people,
(18:13):
thirteen hundred cuts into that percentage a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
If all of those people are on the streets.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Now, it doesn't prove the number if there are thirteen
hundred more people who.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Are not right, but what's the number this year?
Speaker 9 (18:25):
So this year there's about seventy two thousand plus almost
people in La County, just in La County, just in
La County. More than half of those are in La City.
But that is a four percent decrease county wide and
a three point four percent decrease in the city. But
as we talk about this, it is important to keep
in mind how dramatically different the homeless situation is here
(18:48):
compared to just half a decade ago. They do this
count every year. They usually do it in January. This
year they could not because of the wildfire, so they
went out and counted people in February. When they did
this count in twenty nineteen, there were still a pretty
high number, But that number county wide of homeless people
was just under fifty nine thousand.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Oh, so it's gone up, and you said seventy seven
were at well, now we're watching at about seventy two.
So even though it's trending down, it is still significantly
higher than it was just in twenty nineteen before the pandemic.
Now are they counting, Michael Monsters with this Saturday host
some seven to nine pm here on KFI when they
count homelessness, are they counting people living on the streets
(19:31):
or are they also including people living in their cars?
Speaker 9 (19:33):
They are indeed counting all of these things, and so
it's often difficult to sit. This is my second time
sitting through this presentation. I did it last year as well,
when they had their first decrease in many years. They
have different criteria, So the way they will classify you
as just generally homeless is if you are sleeping on
the street or if you are sleeping in a shelter
and you do not have a home. But they also do,
(19:55):
in fact count people who are living in vehicles, whether
it be a small compact car that they're crashing in
the back up or one of those otherwise abandoned RVs
that aren't moving. If you're living in those, you're also
counted as sheltered, but you're still in the homeless count,
so that's a different category. There are also homeless people
who have been placed in transitional housing, maybe people in
(20:18):
the inside Safe program, who have been located relocated to
a motel that's not a permanent home, but that is
it's also count position them, and that is counting.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Now when they count the homeless. It probably takes some
time to do. And does you know, La County is
a fairly big place. Seventy two thousand, they've got to
be you know, they've got to be somewhat happy about
the look. They lose either way, if that number goes
down to twenty thousand, then they lose a lot of
(20:49):
benefits because they get probably money from the state per
homeless person when they count them, or for the federal money.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
It's long been a conversation what happens when the problem
is solved, what happens to the organizations that exist solely
to service these individuals. And there are a lot of money,
a lot of them that are pocketing a lot of
the money that we talk about generally the billions of dollars.
It is funneled through the LA Homeless Services Authority, also
(21:20):
known as LASSA. But within that ecosystem there are many
many service providers. Maybe they do medicine and health, maybe
they do education, but they also offer shelters and they
bank millions. And that's what we found out in the bongos, right,
the non government organizations, Yes, these are those entities that
(21:41):
are making money and have not in recent years really
had to back up their claims for what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So we do.
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Now it seems that the tide is turning. For one
the LA Homeless Services Authority, which is a joint venture
between the county and the city, will not have the
county as part of it anymore. Of supervisors voted to
leave LASA except in one area, which is this the
Homeless count LAWSA will still be to do the count
but the rest of those services will now be in
(22:09):
house at the county and the city is going to
have to figure out what it's going to do with
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
In fact, all that's weird, though I'm sorry to rot
it's okay, but it's weird to break up with somebody
and saying we don't need you anymore by why don't
you help us with the count.
Speaker 9 (22:20):
Because of the money that is used for this and
from where it comes that is a federally funded program
that you need an organization like this to handle for
both the county and the city, so they will still
be responsible for this.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Is it possible that there are more people making money
off homelessness? You know, the NGOs, the charities, the you know,
the free clinics, the medical assists, then there are homeless people.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
It's it's possible, but maybe not.
Speaker 9 (22:50):
I mean, look, we're talking about seventy thousand people plus
that are homeless, but there are thousands of people employed
by LASA alone. There won't be anymore because the county
is leaving, but you can expect a lot of those
folks who are working for LOSSA to be transitioned over
into roles for the new homeless department at the county.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And what happened to Mayor bas having to answer questions
about where all these billions of dollars have gone?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And she lawyered up and hasn't said a word.
Speaker 9 (23:15):
She has not been as forthcoming as folks would like
when it comes to the spending related to her signature
program Inside Safe. That's the program that takes folks ideally
from the streets from camps into motels, these transitional motels.
She says that this program is clearly working because the
numbers are now decreasing, but as Supervisor Lindsay Horvath pointed out,
(23:38):
she's also happy that the number is decreasing, But she says,
at this pace, in order to solve the LA homeless crisis,
it would take three centuries.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Okay, well, look, at least there's a finishing line, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, so what year would that be? Twenty three, twenty five?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Look, lat losal love the track, but as the longest
stretch run in the history of horse racing, I keep
just yelling line, line, line, where is it? It never
shows up. At least they have a goal, you know, yeah,
three says or three hundred years.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah. Well, look, this.
Speaker 9 (24:15):
Is going to be the last homeless count with LASA
fully intact, with the city and the county involved.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
By next year, it will be curious.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
To see where we stand two counts, well, there'll still
be one count, but there will be different approaches to
addressing this homelessness crisis.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And it might be a vastly different. Now good could
be bad. But it wouldn't it be two wouldn't it
be city in this is city in county?
Speaker 9 (24:37):
So they discount alone, does the county in its entirety,
and then offer specific numbers related to the city of
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Okay, so next year it'll just be one count No,
well is one count Now where were you on vacation? No,
but you take a long nap. You said there's an
LA City number and an LA County. Yes, but it's
it's conducted in the same count It's basically But I'm
saying next year it's not going to be this. It
will be the same count laws. We'll still do this
on behalf of LA County and LA City. It's like
(25:04):
the census that you would get the population of California
and the population of Los Angeles because of the same
guy counting.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
All right, I'm imagine we'll hear more of it on
Saturday night seven to nine pm. Absolutely all right, you're
the best Michael Monks and the best couch in downtown
LA real quickly for people that don't know that story,
Monks went to a mall to buy a couch, which
nobody does anymore except you know, ninety year olds and
he bought a five thousand dollars couch at a may Ce's.
But you got it for six hundred with tax seven
(25:33):
oh seven, seven o seven, and you said, it's the
best couch you've ever seen in your life. It was
the floor model. That was the drawback two years of
asses sitting on that couch.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I love the couch, monks, Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
All right, there's a fire burning in the desert and
that's not good, especially if you're on the five fifteen
Free and you're going northbound towards Vegas. You're done, you know.
If you're an electric car, it's it's almost over. You know,
you have to pull over in Baker, find somebody with
an extension cord and plug in.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
All right, Steve Kreegers with us. He is the uh.
I'm just telling it the way it is. Angel.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
You know, I know you like this. You know you
s sure coat everything. There's nothing sweet going on out there,
all right, Steve Creeger's with this ex LA County Firefighter
fire captain.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I believe you retired as captain.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Huh, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
What's higher than captain.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
The next level of his battalion chief?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Did you ever want to do that? And they just
said no, No.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
I took tests many times and failed it on purpose
because I love you. I just want to see if
I can pass it.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Okay, what's burning in the desert? Why are people stopped
on the freeway?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Well, what it looks like from the pictures I'm seeing
from CHP and traffic cams. It looks like a semi
truck and it's burning very dark blacks. So some type
of maybe petroleum block products or plastics in that truck.
But you know, the first thing you do on a
fire engine you pull up to a semi truck on fire,
(27:12):
is you try to get a hold of the driver
and get his bill of lady, and so you know
what you're dealing with, because maybe you don't want to
fight that fire. You want to clear everybody out and
stay away from it. You don't know the hazard, but basically,
you know you fire like that. You know life, property
and environment are your concerns. But out there in the desert,
there's no hygrants out there along the road, So you
(27:33):
can use the water you have out there. Those engines
might have larger water tanks. Normally, most city fire engines
have five hundred gallons. Those out there could have up
towards of thousand, but they may have to drive the
baker to get more water.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But isn't a thousand gallons enough to put that fire out?
Speaker 9 (27:48):
Now?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Not?
Speaker 5 (27:49):
If you have petroleum products involved, it may not be enough.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Steve in your opinion, your professional you know, tutor opinion
as a captain?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Why do those shut and fire? Is it the brakes
that heat up? What catches fire?
Speaker 5 (28:03):
It's hard to say, depending on what type of trailer
it was. It could if a trailer has an open top,
it could be hot ambers coming out of their exhaust pipe.
They could from the brakes. That's that's very common. You
see that a lot up on the grapevine where the
brakes overheat and then they spread. And those trailers have
aluminum skin off them, so once if the brakes starts
(28:26):
flaming up and the tires catch on fire, they'll spreads
of that trailer no time at all, because that the
sides of those trailers are about as thin as an
aluminum can.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Okay, but if it's an open you know, cargo truck.
Why don't they just drop a couple of loads from
a helicopter and call it a day.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, they probably could, but that's hops aren't normally used
for that. But that's definitely a possibility if there's one
available out there way and maybe I don't know what
what their resources are out there at that.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Who's fighting at Sandberg County Fire?
Speaker 5 (29:01):
I believe Sambourrio County Fire, and they probably have helicopters available.
But the fire is pretty much contained. It's staying there
on the trailers, not spread into the brush. It's pretty
much the other probably ask you.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
A question, Steve, on a bigger note.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Isn't there some kind of cool power trip that you
guys get on when you shut the freeway down and
you make all these people and expensive cars sit there
and sweat.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Isn't that kind of cool?
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Oh? No, it's those guys. It's one hundred and twelve
out there right now. The map I'm looking at, and
I don't think those firefighters want to be out there
any longer than the people in the cars. You're probably right,
go back to the fire station.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I don't want to brag, but I think I could
put that thing out in ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Do you think that's true.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Well, if you had a giant flame retardant turf, you
get put over written. But I don't know it takes.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
But Steve, isn't that fire off to the side of
the road. It's on the shoulder right, It.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Kind of looks that way, but it looks like the
smoke is blowing across the road. Okay from the I've
seen so.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Okay, But Steve, ninety percent, ninety five percent of those
people driving northbound on the fifteen are addicted to gambling,
and they're gam blurs. Why don't you say to them, look,
you can drive by your own risk, and ninety five
percent of them would drive by.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Well, that's up to the CHP to deal with that HP.
You know, when it comes to fire on the freeway,
the fire department takes care of the fire and or
medical incident, and CHP takes care of the traffic issues. So,
but it sounds like they're letting people go by now
on the car left. Now that the fire is probably
pretty well knocked down, they can let people go by
(30:47):
in the far left lane or in the center medium
and get by. Initially, Yeah, of that fire. It's going
to create a hazard on the road, and so you
know what's in that, you know, maybe it's very toxic
up in smoke. You know, you just take a risk.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Of Yeah, I think we all breathe that kind of
crap in all day, anybody.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
But I appreciate you coming on. I hope you're enjoying
your retirement. We'll check in with you again.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yeah, all right, all right, thanks man, there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Steve Krieger, retired captive with LA County. That guy knows
his stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
All right, we'll come back with Angel Martinez and check
to see if Steve was telling us the truth or
he's lying about opening up a lane or two and
trying to get people by on that fifteen.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
That's a big deal out there.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And look, if you're stuck out to try behind a
traffic jam like that, you'd want us talk about it too.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So I've been reporting that the lanes have been open
like the last time.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
I know, but you know what, splitting headache. So can
we come back. We'll talk to Angel Martins. We're live
on KFI AM Sick forty Conway Show on demand on
the iHeart Radio app. Now you can always hear us
live on KFI Am six forty four to seven pm
Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeart
(31:55):
Radio app.
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to the
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM
A six Forty's Conway Show. All right back in town.
Who cares Angel Martinez? Before we get into Alex Stone,
Angel Martinez, you said there's a five to six to
ten mile backup somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, seven to eight mile backup. This is on the
fifteen northbound lanes are closed right outside of Baker, and
this is going to a big rig fire, and they
were having some problems getting some water out to the
scene here. At one point, flames from this fire were
shooting one hundred feet straight up into the air.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
What's what's on fire out there? The big rig? Oh,
the big rig. But he's carrying batteries.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's one of those deals, you know, where the these
batteries for cars and will be on fire for four days,
you know.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Could be.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I mean, I don't know what the contents of the
trailer are, but if it's full of batteries, it's gonna
take a long time to put out those flying all right.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So people have asked this again, where is it northbound
near Baker?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, right outside of Baker. Before Baker on the north fifteen.
That's where northbound lanes are closed. They are turning traffic
around Sysix Road, so they're going to force you to
go southbound on the southbound side of the fifteen. At
the scene of this fire. They have the left lane
closes idea okay, yeah, so that's pushing the drive back
(01:30):
for about about seven and a half miles. Northbound is
slowing for about eight miles, right, Okay, we'll.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Keep on top of that. Thank you, Angel Martinez. You
got all right. Let's get to Alex Stone. Alex, how
you bob ing dago that dong with you? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Mandy there on the freeway start behind that fire. Listening
to KFI.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, they're all on their way to Vegas or you know,
on their way to Utah. A lot of listeners go
to Utah for the summer or wherever you're going. Vegas
on a Monday, oh man, you know when you're when
you leave, you know, like at noon on a Monday,
you think, Okay, there's not gonna be any traffic. I
don't want to go at night or in the morning
when there's traffic, and then you get snarled and stuck
in one of those things.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
You know, it could be deadly.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You know, it's it's one hundred degrees out there, and
if you didn't, you know, prep for it.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You don't have water, you don't have food.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Maybe the kids are in diapers and they're resting all
over the back of the car.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's it could be a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Absolutely, you're running low on gas, right, just make it
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Then beyond where we are and then right, Or how
about you you're one of these, you know, gamblers, one
of these uh, you know, guys who take chances in life.
And he's going to take your electric car to Vegas.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
That's over sitting there, Yeah, that's does it called idling
in an electric car? What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And you're sitting there running the air condition and then
you don't run the air conditioning because you don't want
to burn out the battery. You sit there one hundred
and five degrees and you're like, God a mighty, why
did I get this?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Why did I get this?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So we got information coming out of India that big
plane crash.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
So you remember a couple of weeks ago and and
June and the bowing seven eighty seven Dreamliner that it
was seen on video taking off then then kind of
pancaking down, just flat falling. It would look like a
stall that clearly they didn't have engine power, and then
it went into a building and a number of people
were killed on the ground and all but one killed
on board. In total, two hundred and sixty people were killed.
(03:13):
But just like the US, India's government they followed the
NTSB model and about six weeks after an incident, an
aviation incident, they put out a preliminary report, and then
a year later they put out the cause of their
findings and put everything together. But typically in these preliminary reports,
it's kind of everything we know, it's just factual information.
(03:34):
But this one had some real surprise at things in it.
That one, the fuel switches were turned off moments after
the plane lifted off from the runway, and that did
what the fuel switches are designed to do, turned off
the engines, stopped fuel flowing into those engines. And those
switches tim are right below the thrust levers on every
(03:55):
Boeing aircraft on seven thirty seven, triple seven, seven eighty seven,
they're all the same, so every pilot knows them. It
is very clear what they are. John Nant's former seven
thirty seven pilot or Abe Sentwers Aviation Consultants, saying, hm,
that tells him something.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Somebody turned the engines off and they would have known,
since these are two qualified pilots, they would have known
what the consequences were. So either there was a mental aberration.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Or it was purposeful.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
There is not a procedure in the world that on
takeoff you would turn both of those engines off, no
matter what the situation are.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
They covered like there's a dump button here at Kfine,
if somebody swears or says something stupid, I got to
pull the plastic up and then hit that dump button.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
There's no protection.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well there is, so yeah, these switches they've got a
locking mechanism and then they're spring loaded, so they've got
to pull them out and go around a metal gate.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Somebody s pose.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Then, so yeah, it makes it so they can't be
accidentally switched. Now that they got to pull them over.
They got to do this thing. It's no bumping it
with your elbow or vibrating on takeoff that they move
the head of Air India, he says that he's coming
on people not to speculate that one of the pilots
did it on purpose that they don't know yet. We
also know from this what the pilots were saying in
(05:06):
the cockpit. One more for you, Steve Ganyard or other
aviation analysts. He's gone through the transcript. Here's what they
were saying.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
We do know that one of the pilots asked the
other pilot, why did you move those switches?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Why did you cut off the fuel to both of
the engines. The other pilot said, I didn't do it.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Now they don't identify which pilot, if it's a captain
or the first officer, if it's the flying pilot or
the non flying pilot, which who's talking to who in this?
But I mean, you could argue that even the person
who did it, if they did it intentionally knowing they're
being recorded, could say, hey, why'd you do that, you know,
to try to throw off investigators. But one pilot accuses
the other of shutting off the engines right after they
(05:42):
lift off. Then they tried to restart the engines, and
one began to just produce a little bit of thrust
to a spooling back up when they hit the ground.
The other one had just reignited but hadn't actually begun
spinning yet and producing any thrust, And then they had
they had a little bit more out too, they probably
would have had more time to do that, but they
(06:03):
just didn't. So it was either a major mistake that
the captain had fourteen thousand flying hours a first officer
I think around three thousand. That unlikely that there's no
reason why their hands would have ever been down there. Murder, Yeah,
you know, the switches are independent. If one has a problem,
the other one's not going to do the same thing.
(06:25):
Was it some weird big flaw on the Dreamliner? Probably not?
Or was this a big murder suicide? And we've seen
it before eurowings that went into the side of a
mountain a number of years ago. Still many believed that
the Malaysia Airline was There been others around the world,
but somehow that switch got both of them switches got
turned off and they did what they're designed to do,
(06:47):
and they shut off the engine.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know the one.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Alex dowswilis from ABC News. While it was off last week,
I was looking through YouTube and I saw this they're doing.
It's not a documentary, but It's like a news piece
that they did in India where the guy who survived
the plane crash was going to go home, and they
followed him in the hospital. Then they followed him home
and they did interviews with him. And he's sitting in
(07:09):
his living room and he's watching TV. The windows are open,
the fans on. You can hear the fan. And it's
the first day back and he's sitting in the living room.
And then the second day back, he goes in the
backyard and he comes back to the living room. He's
sitting on the couch. And on the second day, this
guy's on the couch. The wife from the kitchen says, hey, honey,
when are you going back to work?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Time to go back over? How about that two days?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You get a day and a half on the couch
and she's banging on you to get back into the office.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Honey, I just survived the plane crash. Can I get
one more day?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
That's right, I'm the only one that survived. How many
people died on that plane It was one hundred two
d and sixty. Two hundred and sixty people died. This
one guy survives. He's taking a breather with it looks
like a beer on the on a couch and she's
banging on him.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
You know, it makes no sense. So this guy survived.
When you look at the wreckage left behind, the only
thing that survived was a tail and some of the
wings coming out of the building. And that he tells
the story of somehow.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
He got booted out of there.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And he was the one guy who all of a
sudden was in rubble going, whoa what just went on? Yeah,
and that everybody else and all the people on the
ground that has seven eighty seven landed on them.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Buddy, I appreciate you coming on. Welcome back, and well yeah, well,
thank you very much. We'll speak you real soon. You
got at thanks man. Alex Stone with ABC News. Yeah,
big beds door story out of India. That's horrible, all right,
we got a lot to cover. The northbound fifteen is
screwed up. There's a truck on fire right outside of Baker.
(08:41):
So if you're going northbound, you're going to I don't know,
you're driving cross country with your buddies. You're on a
big road trip. You're going to Vegas, You're going to Utah,
wherever you're going Nevada. You're going to be hammered with
this thing. It's a five six seven mile back up.
Doesn't look like there's any ending insight. We'll keep an
eye on it because I know you're listening to KFI.
It's one of the few stations that comes in up there,
(09:02):
and the other station is the Desert Station. But they
do traffic on the hour and on the half, so
you could be sitting there for twenty five minutes with
an update on why you're sitting in one hundred degree heat.
But we do it a little more often here with
Angel Martinez.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There is a huge backup on the fifteen. If you're
going northbound, you're going towards Vegas. Right as you cross
the forty, things are looking good. You got Peggy's SU's
fifty diner. Nobody's ever been there, but you passed it
a million times, and then you run into a little
bit of traffic.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
You're like, oh, this is probably clear up. It's not.
It's not good.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Clear up.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
It is going to It happens before Baker. According to
Angel Martinez, who doesn't lie that often about traffic. They're
taking you off at Zizix Road and you're gonna have
to go back south and then get on the forty
and then go north on the forty on probably ninety
five to get around it.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's only about a three hour workaround, So you should
be uh, you should enjoy that. Yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, Today is the day that the Olympics are
going to start. Three years from two day. Are we
ready for them? No, we're not even close. But they're
going to start whether we're ready or not. Three years
from today, July fourteenth, we're going to have the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't see any excitement yet. I don't say anyone
talking about it. I don't hear anybody, you know, none
of my relatives who live out of state or saying hey,
can we come hang with you and you know, get
grab an extra room or get a blow up bed
and crash your place. I've got none of that, none
of that action coming in. And I don't know if
(10:51):
it's going to either. I don't know if the Olympics
has the same attraction as they used to when we
used to play, you know, in the Olympics when when
the Russians and the United States got together, there was
a Cold War going on, and this is the only
time we really saw. We wanted to beat the hell
out of the Soviets in all the sports. But now
nobody really cares. I don't think, you know. And there's
(11:13):
it's always weird summer sports they introduce, like breakdancing.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Who's that chick?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It wasn't the breakdancing that ruined it for everybody from Australia.
It was like Shambeau or Bob her name, but she
had someone kind of a strange nickname that she had
and she destroyed it for everybody. Ray Gun that's right, Yeah,
ray Gun killed rap or break dancing.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
It's over.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I don't know what she's doing now, but she killed
the Olympic sport. But anyway, it was three years from
two day that we will all be celebrating the Olympics.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
A big day for seven hundred kids from all across
Los Angeles. They get to have play La day here
at the Coliseum and you see some of what they're doing,
the adaptive basketball game that is going on here in
front of us, and beyond that they have hockey, There
is football and soccer and so much for these kids
to do. And all of this is to get these
(12:15):
kids from across the city excited for Olympic style sports,
adaptive sports because remember the Paralympics are coming to Los
Angeles in twenty twenty eight as well. And this morning
a special ceremony as they lit the torch here at
the Memorial Coliseum. Hey, what an exciting morning to watch
(12:38):
that happen?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Really is it? That was really exciting? Huh? What an
exciting morning light the torch shirt?
Speaker 7 (12:53):
What an exciting morning to watch that happen, and all
of these kids out here get to be here for
that moment. The mayor talking about how she wants to
encourage kids to play sports. We also heard from the
CEO of LA twenty eight that's the.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Organized if you're not playing sports as a kid. I
don't know if the mayor coming out saying hey, you
should play sports turns your round. I think it just
sort of reminds you that you're not that good at it,
you know, and you're not going to play. Dad's not
into it, Mom's not into it. I can always tell,
like when I see people rioting or I see just
(13:28):
people at a park throwing a ball around. I can
always tell whether the dad spend time with the son
throwing the ball around. You can always tell in the
form that the sun has and how he throws the ball,
if dad spent any time with him on the field
throwing the ball around, you can always tell it's one
hundred percent. It's the easiest tell on a guy.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
King about how she wants to encourage kids to play sports.
We also heard from the CEO of LA twenty eight.
That's the organizing group that is helping with everything bringing
the games to Los Angeles and southern California in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
It is a big exciting time.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Sports gives you so many benefits from health, to building relationships,
to discipline.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
This will be the biggest Olympics ever.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But they always say that about every Olympics. You know,
you have to say it. What are you going to say?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It's like it's like any elections. It's the most important
elections of our of all time.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's right, and you have what are you what else
are you going to say? This will be the fifteenth
largest Olympics of all time.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
To building relationships, to discipline and what is it.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
This will be the biggest Olympics ever.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I don't know about that. Let's I'm gonna stay on
high alert whether that's true or not.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
In the history of the Olympic movement, right here in LA,
it'll be the only Olympics that has had track and
field and sporting events in the same venue ever three times.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And Mayor Bass even put oh, I see what he
was clumsily saying, is it's the first time one facility
will host three different Olympics and that is the Coliseum.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Ever three times. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
And Mayor Bass even pointed out today that having the
Olympics here in southern California helps to fund programs like
play LA, where kids from all over the city can
enroll in sports for as little as ten dollars per season.
And for some families that really is helpful to get
their kids active and outdoors. But really exciting to know
(15:29):
that the Olympics three years away exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, three years from today, we'll start the Olympics. So
you guys all got to get ready, got to get
a fever pitch going. You know, the Olympics are coming
to LA. It's a big deal. But nobody's really excise
too far away, too far, all right, We'll keep an
eye on the five to fifteen, I mean the fifteen
freeway northbound right before Baker.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Baker's that small little crappy town that has.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The Alien Jerky Joint. The world's tallest thermometers also there
and about fifth teen fast food places.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
And that's a wrap. Was that Greek place, wasn't it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, the mad the mad Greek, the mad Greek. Yeah,
the mad Greek. And and I love that mad Greek. Yeah,
the mad Greek's not bad. Mad Greek is not a
bad hang. But that is if you're coming home from Vegas.
You're going to Vegas, you are going to be wildly
impacted by what's going on out there.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And it's still very traffic e in the desert right
as you approach Baker and I. In the next segment,
at around four forty, we had Steve Krieger coming on
to talk about this incident. There's a truck on fire,
and he also has a visual of it as well.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
But it's a mess.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Getting out to Vegas northbound fifteen is an absolute mess.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You may want to good mar all.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Right, the owner of the world's greatest and most famous
couches here, Mike Monk, Michael Monks, how you.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Bub Where in the sam Hill have you been, buddy?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I can't look at a couch out of Macy's without
thinking of your crazy purchase.
Speaker 9 (17:07):
I really didn't expect it to be this much of
a topic of conversation around here, but it's given us
a lot of content, and I hope the listeners have
enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I think they have. I absolutely think they have.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So, homelessness in LA has gone down to zero. It
has not gone down to zero. In fact, it's a decreased,
closer to zero percent than in the other direction that
we want to see, but it has decreased again. So
homeless officials, the only homeless services authority and local government
government officials like Lamhor Bass spoke today releasing the data
(17:36):
from that annual count of homeless people on the streets,
and they say, for the second year in a row,
the number of homeless people living on the streets are
living in shelters has decreased. Well, what is the method
behind and how scientific is to count people are walking around?
Speaker 9 (17:51):
Well, they do have a scientific method behind this. This
is a scientifically backed survey. USC is involved, but the
organizer at USC does note there is a margin of
error involved here that could include upwards of thirteen hundred people. Okay,
and when we were talking about seventy four thousand people,
(18:13):
thirteen hundred cuts into that percentage a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
If all of those people are on the streets.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Now, it doesn't prove the number if there are thirteen
hundred more people who.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Are not right, but what's the number this year?
Speaker 9 (18:25):
So this year there's about seventy two thousand plus almost
people in La County, just in La County, just in
La County. More than half of those are in La City.
But that is a four percent decrease county wide and
a three point four percent decrease in the city. But
as we talk about this, it is important to keep
in mind how dramatically different the homeless situation is here
(18:48):
compared to just half a decade ago. They do this
count every year. They usually do it in January. This
year they could not because of the wildfire, so they
went out and counted people in February. When they did
this count in twenty nineteen, there were still a pretty
high number, But that number county wide of homeless people
was just under fifty nine thousand.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Oh, so it's gone up, and you said seventy seven
were at well, now we're watching at about seventy two.
So even though it's trending down, it is still significantly
higher than it was just in twenty nineteen before the pandemic.
Now are they counting, Michael Monsters with this Saturday host
some seven to nine pm here on KFI when they
count homelessness, are they counting people living on the streets
(19:31):
or are they also including people living in their cars?
Speaker 9 (19:33):
They are indeed counting all of these things, and so
it's often difficult to sit. This is my second time
sitting through this presentation. I did it last year as well,
when they had their first decrease in many years. They
have different criteria, So the way they will classify you
as just generally homeless is if you are sleeping on
the street or if you are sleeping in a shelter
and you do not have a home. But they also do,
(19:55):
in fact count people who are living in vehicles, whether
it be a small compact car that they're crashing in
the back up or one of those otherwise abandoned RVs
that aren't moving. If you're living in those, you're also
counted as sheltered, but you're still in the homeless count,
so that's a different category. There are also homeless people
who have been placed in transitional housing, maybe people in
(20:18):
the inside Safe program, who have been located relocated to
a motel that's not a permanent home, but that is
it's also count position them, and that is counting.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Now when they count the homeless. It probably takes some
time to do. And does you know, La County is
a fairly big place. Seventy two thousand, they've got to
be you know, they've got to be somewhat happy about
the look. They lose either way, if that number goes
down to twenty thousand, then they lose a lot of
(20:49):
benefits because they get probably money from the state per
homeless person when they count them, or for the federal money.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
It's long been a conversation what happens when the problem
is solved, what happens to the organizations that exist solely
to service these individuals. And there are a lot of money,
a lot of them that are pocketing a lot of
the money that we talk about generally the billions of dollars.
It is funneled through the LA Homeless Services Authority, also
(21:20):
known as LASSA. But within that ecosystem there are many
many service providers. Maybe they do medicine and health, maybe
they do education, but they also offer shelters and they
bank millions. And that's what we found out in the bongos, right,
the non government organizations, Yes, these are those entities that
(21:41):
are making money and have not in recent years really
had to back up their claims for what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So we do.
Speaker 9 (21:48):
Now it seems that the tide is turning. For one
the LA Homeless Services Authority, which is a joint venture
between the county and the city, will not have the
county as part of it anymore. Of supervisors voted to
leave LASA except in one area, which is this the
Homeless count LAWSA will still be to do the count
but the rest of those services will now be in
(22:09):
house at the county and the city is going to
have to figure out what it's going to do with
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
In fact, all that's weird, though I'm sorry to rot
it's okay, but it's weird to break up with somebody
and saying we don't need you anymore by why don't
you help us with the count.
Speaker 9 (22:20):
Because of the money that is used for this and
from where it comes that is a federally funded program
that you need an organization like this to handle for
both the county and the city, so they will still
be responsible for this.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Is it possible that there are more people making money
off homelessness? You know, the NGOs, the charities, the you know,
the free clinics, the medical assists, then there are homeless people.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
It's it's possible, but maybe not.
Speaker 9 (22:50):
I mean, look, we're talking about seventy thousand people plus
that are homeless, but there are thousands of people employed
by LASA alone. There won't be anymore because the county
is leaving, but you can expect a lot of those
folks who are working for LOSSA to be transitioned over
into roles for the new homeless department at the county.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And what happened to Mayor bas having to answer questions
about where all these billions of dollars have gone?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And she lawyered up and hasn't said a word.
Speaker 9 (23:15):
She has not been as forthcoming as folks would like
when it comes to the spending related to her signature
program Inside Safe. That's the program that takes folks ideally
from the streets from camps into motels, these transitional motels.
She says that this program is clearly working because the
numbers are now decreasing, but as Supervisor Lindsay Horvath pointed out,
(23:38):
she's also happy that the number is decreasing, But she says,
at this pace, in order to solve the LA homeless crisis,
it would take three centuries.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Okay, well, look, at least there's a finishing line, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, so what year would that be? Twenty three, twenty five?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Look, lat losal love the track, but as the longest
stretch run in the history of horse racing, I keep
just yelling line, line, line, where is it? It never
shows up. At least they have a goal, you know, yeah,
three says or three hundred years.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah. Well, look, this.
Speaker 9 (24:15):
Is going to be the last homeless count with LASA
fully intact, with the city and the county involved.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
By next year, it will be curious.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
To see where we stand two counts, well, there'll still
be one count, but there will be different approaches to
addressing this homelessness crisis.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And it might be a vastly different. Now good could
be bad. But it wouldn't it be two wouldn't it
be city in this is city in county?
Speaker 9 (24:37):
So they discount alone, does the county in its entirety,
and then offer specific numbers related to the city of
Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Okay, so next year it'll just be one count No,
well is one count Now where were you on vacation? No,
but you take a long nap. You said there's an
LA City number and an LA County. Yes, but it's
it's conducted in the same count It's basically But I'm
saying next year it's not going to be this. It
will be the same count laws. We'll still do this
on behalf of LA County and LA City. It's like
(25:04):
the census that you would get the population of California
and the population of Los Angeles because of the same
guy counting.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
All right, I'm imagine we'll hear more of it on
Saturday night seven to nine pm. Absolutely all right, you're
the best Michael Monks and the best couch in downtown
LA real quickly for people that don't know that story,
Monks went to a mall to buy a couch, which
nobody does anymore except you know, ninety year olds and
he bought a five thousand dollars couch at a may Ce's.
But you got it for six hundred with tax seven
(25:33):
oh seven, seven o seven, and you said, it's the
best couch you've ever seen in your life. It was
the floor model. That was the drawback two years of
asses sitting on that couch.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I love the couch, monks, Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
All right, there's a fire burning in the desert and
that's not good, especially if you're on the five fifteen
Free and you're going northbound towards Vegas. You're done, you know.
If you're an electric car, it's it's almost over. You know,
you have to pull over in Baker, find somebody with
an extension cord and plug in.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
All right, Steve Kreegers with us. He is the uh.
I'm just telling it the way it is. Angel.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
You know, I know you like this. You know you
s sure coat everything. There's nothing sweet going on out there,
all right, Steve Creeger's with this ex LA County Firefighter
fire captain.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
I believe you retired as captain.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
Huh, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
What's higher than captain.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
The next level of his battalion chief?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Did you ever want to do that? And they just
said no, No.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
I took tests many times and failed it on purpose
because I love you. I just want to see if
I can pass it.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Okay, what's burning in the desert? Why are people stopped
on the freeway?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Well, what it looks like from the pictures I'm seeing
from CHP and traffic cams. It looks like a semi
truck and it's burning very dark blacks. So some type
of maybe petroleum block products or plastics in that truck.
But you know, the first thing you do on a
fire engine you pull up to a semi truck on fire,
(27:12):
is you try to get a hold of the driver
and get his bill of lady, and so you know
what you're dealing with, because maybe you don't want to
fight that fire. You want to clear everybody out and
stay away from it. You don't know the hazard, but basically,
you know you fire like that. You know life, property
and environment are your concerns. But out there in the desert,
there's no hygrants out there along the road, So you
(27:33):
can use the water you have out there. Those engines
might have larger water tanks. Normally, most city fire engines
have five hundred gallons. Those out there could have up
towards of thousand, but they may have to drive the
baker to get more water.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But isn't a thousand gallons enough to put that fire out?
Speaker 9 (27:48):
Now?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Not?
Speaker 5 (27:49):
If you have petroleum products involved, it may not be enough.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Steve in your opinion, your professional you know, tutor opinion
as a captain?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Why do those shut and fire? Is it the brakes
that heat up? What catches fire?
Speaker 5 (28:03):
It's hard to say, depending on what type of trailer
it was. It could if a trailer has an open top,
it could be hot ambers coming out of their exhaust pipe.
They could from the brakes. That's that's very common. You
see that a lot up on the grapevine where the
brakes overheat and then they spread. And those trailers have
aluminum skin off them, so once if the brakes starts
(28:26):
flaming up and the tires catch on fire, they'll spreads
of that trailer no time at all, because that the
sides of those trailers are about as thin as an
aluminum can.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Okay, but if it's an open you know, cargo truck.
Why don't they just drop a couple of loads from
a helicopter and call it a day.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, they probably could, but that's hops aren't normally used
for that. But that's definitely a possibility if there's one
available out there way and maybe I don't know what
what their resources are out there at that.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Who's fighting at Sandberg County Fire?
Speaker 5 (29:01):
I believe Sambourrio County Fire, and they probably have helicopters available.
But the fire is pretty much contained. It's staying there
on the trailers, not spread into the brush. It's pretty
much the other probably ask you.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
A question, Steve, on a bigger note.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Isn't there some kind of cool power trip that you
guys get on when you shut the freeway down and
you make all these people and expensive cars sit there
and sweat.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Isn't that kind of cool?
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Oh? No, it's those guys. It's one hundred and twelve
out there right now. The map I'm looking at, and
I don't think those firefighters want to be out there
any longer than the people in the cars. You're probably right,
go back to the fire station.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I don't want to brag, but I think I could
put that thing out in ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Do you think that's true.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Well, if you had a giant flame retardant turf, you
get put over written. But I don't know it takes.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
But Steve, isn't that fire off to the side of
the road. It's on the shoulder right, It.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Kind of looks that way, but it looks like the
smoke is blowing across the road. Okay from the I've
seen so.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Okay, But Steve, ninety percent, ninety five percent of those
people driving northbound on the fifteen are addicted to gambling,
and they're gam blurs. Why don't you say to them, look,
you can drive by your own risk, and ninety five
percent of them would drive by.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Well, that's up to the CHP to deal with that HP.
You know, when it comes to fire on the freeway,
the fire department takes care of the fire and or
medical incident, and CHP takes care of the traffic issues. So,
but it sounds like they're letting people go by now
on the car left. Now that the fire is probably
pretty well knocked down, they can let people go by
(30:47):
in the far left lane or in the center medium
and get by. Initially, Yeah, of that fire. It's going
to create a hazard on the road, and so you
know what's in that, you know, maybe it's very toxic
up in smoke. You know, you just take a risk.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Of Yeah, I think we all breathe that kind of
crap in all day, anybody.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
But I appreciate you coming on. I hope you're enjoying
your retirement. We'll check in with you again.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yeah, all right, all right, thanks man, there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Steve Krieger, retired captive with LA County. That guy knows
his stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
All right, we'll come back with Angel Martinez and check
to see if Steve was telling us the truth or
he's lying about opening up a lane or two and
trying to get people by on that fifteen.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
That's a big deal out there.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And look, if you're stuck out to try behind a
traffic jam like that, you'd want us talk about it too.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So I've been reporting that the lanes have been open
like the last time.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
I know, but you know what, splitting headache. So can
we come back. We'll talk to Angel Martins. We're live
on KFI AM Sick forty Conway Show on demand on
the iHeart Radio app. Now you can always hear us
live on KFI Am six forty four to seven pm
Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeart
(31:55):
Radio app.
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