July 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Mark Thompson steps in for Tim Conway Jr. with a breaking news–packed hour. He’s joined by ABC’s Alex Stone to cover the Texas Border Patrol shooting that left officers injured and the suspect dead. Then, Mark dives into the catastrophic flash floods that swept Central Texas, raising urgent questions about emergency alert systems. KFI’s Michael Monks joins the conversation to break down the ICE raids at LA’s MacArthur Park and shares insight into LA Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s response. The hour wraps with a bittersweet update: the iconic Downtown LA eatery Cole’s French Dip will close its doors August 3rd.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's k IF I am six forty and you're listening
to The Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, I am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It is The Conway Show, Thompsons sitting in on this
Monday with much going on. A lot of it is
in the state of Texas that we'll get to pretty
immediately here, and then a lot in southern California six
months after the Eaton and palis Age fires. Signs of progress, recovery,
(00:32):
also frustration. We'll get into all of that. My back
is killing me. Steffush and Krozier and Matt. That's why
I am standing through today's presentation. What did you do,
mister Thompson?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I have.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You wanna know the real story? You wanna the glamorous story? Hmmm?
Which is sexier? Well, of course the glamorous story is sexier, baby,
all right. So I was at the Thompson in a
State last night. Good start for the Glen Yes polishing
some of the Emmy Awards and the Peaboddy Award and
(01:11):
the People's Choice Award. My plaque from YouTube, for the
hundreds of thousands of people who've found my show. And
as I twisted to reach for that second Emmy, which
is of course on the top shelf, I screamed something
in my back and I fell to the floor. My
(01:32):
screams could not be heard by anyone. Gross. Oh yes,
because of the vastness of my estate. You heard your
echo come back to you. Yes. And then one of
the clean up people at the gift shop there on
the Thompson estate grounds heard my screams and was able
(01:53):
to help me to my feet. You saw Thompson. But
advil and attitude is all I have to get us
through this show, So let's get it on. In Texas,
there is the supreme tragedy and loss of life associated
with the Texas floods, But there is the breaking news
(02:16):
of the moment out of McAllen, Texas. A man with
an assault rifle has now been killed after shooting at
border patrol. It was in a facility in Texas, and
our Alex Stone is there. What's up, Alex Stone?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's all a big TV person's name. Drop everything that
you just said a moment ago. Yeah, all those emmys
out there, well be true. It's the hemorrhoids. That's why
you're not how you.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
How dare you but he got the hemorrhoids from lifting
all those awards.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That's true, Yes, thank you there hemorrhoids. There's a trail
of breadcrumbs back to my awards always.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
But on a much more serious note, yeah, a lot
a lot of work underway right now that they're trying
to figure out a motive in this. And the front
doors of the US Customs and Border Protection Building McCallen
have bullets through them. They've been boarding them up today.
So it was around four o'clock in the morning. Twenty
seven year old guy Ryan Muskada is his name. He
(03:13):
had been reported out of another town, the nearby McCallen
at around four am. Then six am police say he
showed up outside of the building and began firing. This
is where the heavily armed Border patrol, essentially their SWAT
team is housed. You know, the big guns come out.
This is what it sounded like. Somebody who pulled up
(03:35):
outside to go to the airport, which is next door.
That is the gun battle, and it is right next
door to the McCallen airport. So the airport was shut
down for a while because they didn't know what was
going on. One McCallen police officer was shot in the knee,
Two agents of the federal agents had some minor injuries,
and Muskado was shot and killed. Now they have no
(03:58):
idea what he deal was that he pulls up it
was like five point fifty three in the morning and
begins firing into the building, and they're trying it to
piece it all together.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
There were many, many, many dozens of rounds fired from
by the suspect towards the building and towards agents in
that building.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
So on the skater's car he had words written in
what they think is Latin in spray paint, and they're
working now to figure out the relevance of those words
of do they mean anything to what went on? Is
this a mental health thing?
Speaker 7 (04:27):
The chief saying, there's a message we don't understand on
a vehicle. May be some Latin words on it, but
I don't know if they're necessarily related to the reason
is here or have any relationship at all with regard
to why this happened.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
He never got in the building, He only fired from
the outside before he was shot and killed. And in
the car they thought, well, maybe there's explosives out here,
They shut down the airport, they brought in the bomb squad.
They didn't find anything in there. Y had a couple
of carry on style bags that had more AMMO and
stuff in them. But they don't think he's linked to
anybody else. They don't think there are any more threats
the motive, they say. They they're going to look at
(05:00):
his social media, talk to family. They don't know if
I will.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Take lead and as a results, as I'm sorry as
any this particular incident involves both a federal assault and
a federal police officer, and an assault on a federal
building as well.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Obviously, with everything going on right now, it's easy to
jump to well, this was you know, going after the
border patrol and US Customs and Border Protection. But they
don't know he's from Michigan. He had Michigan plates on
his car. They don't know how long he'd been around McCallen,
why he was there from Michigan. They're going to talk
to family, they're gonna, you know, look at at anything
that he's been writing recently that they may answer some
(05:36):
of this. And then the whole thing about him being
reported missing at around four am from a town just
outside of McCallen. Did he report himself missing? Is there
a family member who did? Police said they don't know
who called it in.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, somebody missing exactly, Yeah, and at.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Four o'clock in the morning and saying, well he's missing
and we don't know where he is. And then an
hour and forty five minutes later he turns up and
opens fire on a border patrol.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
The other thing that's odd to me, Alex Stone, is
that if you're there to do damage, you wait until sunrise,
you know, you'll wait until there's more activity. He pulls up,
you know, pre dawn hours and just opens fire, or.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
You wait until agents are coming in or out. Yeah,
so there's a target there. This was just spraying into
the building and they immediately responded. So the initial in
the radio traffic, initially somebody saw them and reported in
over radio traffic to McCallan police that somebody with a
long gun was seen outside of the Border Patrol office
and they began responding, and then he began firing, and
(06:35):
then it was the exchange of gunfire. But you know,
I mean there's these you know, First Amendment auditors who
go out with long guns and stand outside of government
buildings and try to antagonize police and try to get
them to do something. So just seeing somebody standing outside
of the building on public property with a weapon, especially
(06:56):
in Texas, that they're not immediately going to assume that's
an active shooter.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Telly opened fire and then began firing.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And the fact that he had a bunch of ammo
with him, I mean a ton of ammo. I mean again,
these are all just sort of like you wonder, was
this the first and a list of places that he
was going to stop or was he looking for you know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, they don't know. Yeah, clearly, and the police chief
said today clearly this was premeditated in the way that
he pulled in and that he had the weapon and
may have had more weapons and had the ammunition and
began firing. But beyond that, they don't know how planned
outa was or exactly what he planned on doing. I mean,
he had to know that. Maybe he didn't anticipate that
this is where the SWAT team was inside this building
(07:38):
the Border patrols equivalent, and they call these teams. I
think it's the boor tag team where they're the ones
who went in to you know, they go into the
school shootings and search the woods when there's a high
profile person not just immigration related but in general who
they're going after. And right now, Travis Decker up in Idaho,
the Border Patrols team is taking part in that. This
(08:01):
is the most heavily armed team that the Border Patrol
has that happened to be in that building.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But they don't know if he.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Knew that or if he just thought these were regular
Border patrol agents and opened fire there and then they
came out and killed.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Him in just wild Yeah, interesting to put this all together. Alex,
thank you, always appreciate you talking to yep Alex Tone
from ABC again. The active shooter at the office in McAllen, Texas,
the US Customs and Border Protection office there, and he
has been taken out by return fire. Believed to be
(08:33):
no other threats. The other thing that is grabbing headlines
comes out of Texas also, this catastrophic flash flooding in
central Texas. I mean, it's heartbreaking. These kids, twenty eight children,
and the details now showing an administrative failure and a
(08:56):
failure on the part of decision makers to pay or
the minuscule amounts of money and paying those minuscule amounts
of money to get a warning system in place. Again,
no flood warning system. We'll get into some of that
as we continue.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
This flooding in Texas is incredible and story is unreal,
and it has so many different layers to it. You know,
now here's sort of an overall sense of it, and
then we'll get into I'll give you a rough idea
of what was going on.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I mean, we're learning more about the victims of the
flood disaster and the survivors trying to come to terms
with what they witnessed.
Speaker 9 (09:41):
I had to swamp through a window and then hold
on to the meter box outside of the house.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Twenty eight year old Christian Fell says he stood on
the electric meter box outside his home for nearly three
hours to stay alive.
Speaker 10 (09:55):
It was an absolute force of nature that I've never
witnessed before.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Banda Sue Jones, her husband and four kids evacuated moments
before the worst of the flooding hit.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
For the time we crossed the bridge to when everything's
getting swept away was I mean probably ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Twenty seven year old Julian Ryan died heroically saving his
kids by placing them on a floating mattress. Beloved high
school teacher Jeff Wilson, who taught autobody repair, also lost
his life in the flood. His wife and son are missing.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
He was able to build relationships with kids, maybe kids
that didn't fit the traditional classroom model.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And at Camp Mystic, where more than two dozen campers
were swept away in the night, at least eleven are
confirmed dead, among them Janie Hunt, the nine year old
cousin of Kansas City Chief's owner Clark Hunt. His wife
announcing Janie's death, saying, if your heart is broken, I
assure you God is near. Eighteen year old camp counselor
Chloe Childress is being remembered for her work with senior citizens.
(11:00):
The head of her high school saying Chloe made space
for others to feel safe, valued, and brave.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean, this is heartbreaking to hear these descriptions of
these amazing people. It's like they took the sweetest souls
they could.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Those who knew Camp Mystic's owner Dick Eastland say he
died heroically trying to rescue campers. His grandson writing if
he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was
the only other way saving the girls that he so
loved and cared for.
Speaker 9 (11:29):
He was, you know, a man that made everyone feel
safe and seen.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
He was just an extremely helpless person and.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He should want it until the very end. I mean,
it seems as though it was an incident informed by
a lot of heroism, amazing stuff, But there are stories
of survival that come from this, and then there are
questions about how this happened. I'll get to how this happened,
I mean beyond the meteorology, beyond the atmospheric of it,
(12:01):
like why weren't their warnings or exactly what went down.
We'll get to that in a second. But the story
of survival is compelling.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
We're learning more about the victims of the flood disaster
and the survivors trying to come to terms with what
they witnessed.
Speaker 9 (12:16):
I had to swamp through a window and then hold
on to the meter box outside of the house.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Twenty eight year old Christian Fell says he stood on
the electric meter box outside his home for nearly three
hours to stay alive. Twenty seven year old Julian Ryan
died heroically saving his kids by placing them on a
floating mattress. Beloved high school teacher Jeff Wilson, who taught
autobody repair, also lost his life in the flood. His
(12:44):
wife and son are missing.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
He was able to build relationships with kids, maybe kids
that didn't fit the traditional classroom model.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And at Camp miss It, where more than two dozen
campers were swept away in the night, at least eleven
are confirmed dead, among them Jane Hunt, the nine year
old cousin of Kansas City Chief's owner Cark Hunt, his
wife announcing Janie's death, saying, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You heard all of that, So I wanted to share
with you the outstanding questions about why the warnings weren't heated?
Were their warnings? And if not, why not?
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Blatlope River just about one hundred feet behind me here,
But on Friday, at this very time, it was nearly
one hundred yards over its banks here, well above me
and well beyond where I'm standing, uprooting all kinds of trees,
leaving behind a trail of debris. Summer camps and campgrounds
like this one popular draw here in Kirk County, where
dozens of people were simply swept away and killed after
(13:44):
the river rose rapidly from all that torrential rain. Video
from nearby Center Pointe, Texas here shows the moment the
river started swelling, and then minutes later the landscape becomes unrecognizable,
submerged in the floodwaters. As a recovery process began. Many
have expressed concern about the lack of early warnings from
local and federal authorities. While flood alerts started coming in
(14:07):
during the day on Thursday, the first alert warning people
to evacuate Kirk County did not come until four to
three in the morning, most people obviously in a deep
sleep at that point. Some blame the National Weather Service
for underestimating the flood risk and for lack of urgent alerts.
Others note that Kirk County does not have its own
(14:28):
flood warning system. We spoke with one family, Carmen Hime
and her h year old son Esteban. They recalled the
moment they decided to grab all their stuff, stuff it
into their RV and get away from this RV campsite
where they had been celebrating the holiday.
Speaker 10 (14:43):
I was thinking, like, oh, it's time to go to
the water park. No, the water park is upside.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You thought she was calling it waking you up for fun, But.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
No, this was bad, This was a warning.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
What do you think of this whole situation?
Speaker 10 (15:00):
Scared? Scared, nervous?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Was scared you the most?
Speaker 10 (15:04):
The river rising up put it sound like racking and
all of that, like tree branches falling off.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The whole thing happened so quickly, as has been mentioned
in everything. That's why it's called a flash flood. It
happened so quickly. Look, they're banging on National Weather Service people,
and I can just tell you straight up, I've read
through this. There is nothing that the National Weather Service
(15:34):
did that was falling down on the job, not getting
it done, not getting the warning out, not doing a
rigorous enough check of the forecast. It predicted seven inches
of rain, and they predicted between five and seven inches.
(15:54):
By the way, if they had stopped right there, I
get that there were thirteen inches that fell, et cetera.
But if they stop right there at seven inches of rain,
that's certainly sufficient to swell all those floodwaters to the
same point in those flood prone regions doing all this damage.
So when they issued this catastrophic damage, severe threat to
(16:17):
human life, warning that was at four oh three in
the morning that has now been documented, and you just
hearn there is no way to get word out, and
local officials say they didn't expect such an intense downpour. Yeah,
we get it. But the idea is you're supposed to
have a flood warning system, like a tornado warning. Those
(16:41):
of you who have come to the West coast through Kansas,
through Oklahoma, through Nebraska, through Colorado, you know there are
systems there that actually produce a loud audio sound. It's
like a it's an alarm, it's a siren. And they
(17:01):
considered a flood warning system like that a warning siren
about six or seven years ago, but it was too
expensive and they waved it off. And I think all
of these souls could have been saved if they'd had it.
It's also a question as to whether or not they
(17:22):
should have been there with even any threat of flooding
in that region. This flash flooding happens just that fast.
A real sad A coda is that the National Weather
Service people who have again they've been in they've been
on the griddle because they are being blamed for this
(17:45):
on some level. As I've just told you, there's no
evidence that they blew anything from what I can see.
But the other irony is they actually had extra people on.
National Weather Service had extra staffers working because they this
is a severe weather event. We were anticipating a severe
weather event, and that's why we brought additional forecasters on.
(18:06):
So sometimes the problem isn't one you can point the
finger at another party in talking about to all the
public officials in Texas, look at the clear need of
a warning system there and the loss of those sweet
souls that should certainly say something about what you need
to do. Get the federal government to help you with
(18:29):
the spending if you need it.
Speaker 8 (18:32):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
It was a pretty active day in Los Angeles today.
I don't know quite how to frame this, but if
you were in MacArthur Park or around MacArthur Park, there
was a show going on, and it was a show
of law enforcement and politics and it all came together.
Kfi's Michael Monks is here to take us through. This
(19:01):
was quite a scene.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
I mean, you are absolutely right when you see some
of the videos that have come out of these raids,
as they've been called. You're usually seeing maybe three or
four federal vehicles show up, eight to ten agents. They're
at a car wash, they're at the home depot. This
was a display like we have not seen, and what
it was is still unclear. We're talking about eleven o'clock
(19:25):
this morning, MacArthur Park, Los Angeles. Military vehicles, horses, about
one hundred agents and National Guard troops marching through the park.
And as you know, MacArthur Park is pretty well full
of immigrant population of probably varying legal status, a lot
of vendors nearby, some businesses nearby, and a lot of
(19:47):
people in now The park is also troubled in other ways,
a lot of homeless, a lot of open air drug
use going on there. But this sudden show of force
comes out of nowhere, and in the middle of it,
La Mayor Karen Bash shows up to confront these federal agents.
One of the federal agents hands the mayor a telephone,
his phone, she's talking to somebody, still unclear who she
(20:10):
hands the phone back. Protesters are there and after just
a few minutes of this show, no enforcement action, nobody detained.
Everybody leaves and that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
You know, a lot of these incidents, I'll just call
them are It seems to me informed by a desire
for publicity of one sort. That's why you'll remember just
a few weeks ago, maybe it was six weeks ago,
maybe it was eight weeks ago, when the enforcement process
began nationwide. You had local news stations following the ICE
(20:46):
agents out. You had Doctor Phil showing up at that
and celebrated detaining of the I think a guy and
his brother or two people. And I felt that was
a desire on the part of the administration. There's nothing
particularly wrong with it, how to get the word out
that we're we're cracking down. Well, so you're not alone
in that thought.
Speaker 11 (21:04):
I'll point out because there was a press conference shortly
after at La City Hall. The mayor was there, some
council members. Council President Marquise Harris Dawson kind of said
the same thing because it doesn't seem clear what was
going on. Here's what Marquise Harris Dawson, the council president,
had to say this morning look.
Speaker 12 (21:22):
Like a staging for a TikTok video, yep. And what
we say to Border Patrol is the council if you
want to film in La you should apply for a
film permit like everybody else, and stop trying to scare
the Bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great
city and disrupt our economy.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
They do every day they are here.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
They disrupt the economy, and they cost this state, in
this city and county millions and millions of dollars in
real money, but also the kind you can't count. And
that's making people scared to leave their houses and making
people scared to go to school and to the doctor
and to call the police or the fire department when
something is wrong.
Speaker 11 (22:01):
So that was Council President Marquise Harris Dawson saying exactly
that this looked like a publicity stunt, and really the
actions are terrifying a community. And so you are seeing
a lot of the street vendors close up shop. You
are seeing a lot less activity in those areas like
MacArthur Park in the Fashion district. Some of the swap
swap meets, they're not getting the crowds that they used to.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's just it's wild to see, honestly, the politics of
publicity around this issue and the issue itself around the
show of force come together at the same moment just
really crazy. So when we come back in talking about
(22:43):
businesses that are no longer, one hugely famous business in
downtown is closing and we want to talk about it
with you next. Michael Bunks will stay with us.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
You're listening to Tim conwaytoon You're on demand from KFI AMCIX.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Mark Thompson sitting in with Michael Monks here talking about
what was going on downtown LA today. It was a
huge show of force on the part of immigration enforcement
and a huge show of force on the part of
political enforcement. We kind of addressed that, but there was
something else that's happened in downtown LA and it may
be I'm curious to know a function of some of
(23:24):
the other stuff you talked about, Michael. I don't know
if this is foot traffic or you know, commercial businesses
suffering more downtown. But a major institution is closing.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
A major institution is closing. In fact, the longest oldest
restaurant in Los Angeles they claimed to be, has announced
that it's closing its doors. And I first started to
see some posts on social media over the weekend. I
put in a call, I sent an email to this
group and they confirmed it this morning in a statement,
calls the originators of the French dip.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, people think Philips, but I guess.
Speaker 11 (23:56):
Well, Calls and Philips have had a long time rivalry
over who dip to sandwich and os you first? But
now there will only be one left to make that
claim because Cole's the originator of the French dip. That's
their full name. That's how petty they are about this
French dip thing. They're closing their doors on August third,
after one hundred and seventeen years in business on Sixth Street.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Now what do they say about the reason.
Speaker 11 (24:21):
Look, you're probably gonna hear some things from staff, as
you always do from the restaurants that close down rather suddenly,
that some mismanagement and all. We haven't heard that side
publicly yet. What the restaurant management is saying publicly is
we've had a rough few years in downtown Los Angeles,
starting with COVID and the way that hammered business in downtown.
(24:45):
Like many businesses, they say the writers and the actors
strike took a lot of people out of out of
the social scene because they weren't working. There's also the
high cost of doing business in Los Angeles period, whether
it's how much you have to pay, how much you
have to pay in fees to the city, how much
your rent might be, although I don't know how long
they've been renting that space, what kind of business set
(25:08):
up that might be. They're in the building that was
home to the Pacific Electric Company that operated the subway,
so there's a lot of history related to that company
in the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I want to say, there's sort of that Art Deco
kind of architecture around there.
Speaker 11 (25:22):
Yeah, and they also say crime and if you make
your way to this block of Sixth Street as you're
heading into the fashion district from the business district, it's messy.
It's really messy. It's literally filthy, and then it's just
generally messy. A lot of homeless, a lot of it
was seeming drug addicts having mental health episodes in the
(25:44):
middle of the street. It's just not a great location
right now. And it's a real shame because you know,
I live around the corner of been Nicoles. Many times
it is nice to sit at Cole's and take in
that history.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, they've got the boots and the just the vibe
of like old school, classic downtown.
Speaker 11 (26:07):
La And my understanding is that the tables in the
restaurant are made from some of those old train cars.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
That's true. Yeah.
Speaker 11 (26:14):
The weird thing is just recently a restaurant opened next
door to it, a Jamaican restaurant, and I took note
of that because I thought, is that a good sign?
You know, like, if you're taking a chance on this block,
knowing how expensive it is, knowing how volatile it is,
is that a good sign. There's also a very nice
little wine bar that's a couple doors down from this,
so you know that attracts a certain crowd. So in
(26:37):
spite of the conditions, there is still an enterprising spirit
on the block. It just looks like Coles And it's
just a shock to say Coals is closing. Coles has
not been able to weather this any longer.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it doesn't sound sounds like those other businesses are
different kinds of business. I mean Cole's really had the
old school feel and had the old school feel and traditions,
even the way servers interacted and the whole vibe there.
It's but it's a sign, as you say, perhaps of
a stretched downtown.
Speaker 11 (27:10):
In so many ways, it's not getting any better, and
it's struggled since the pandemic. The pandemic at what I've
learned is it really halted Downtown's forward momentum. There was
a lot of good stuff happening down there, but COVID
when it shut everything down, it allowed some chaos to
run a monk, and that chaos has not been put
(27:33):
back underground yet. They have not put the lid on
that at all. You see a lot of manic episodes
on the streets. You see a lot of streets sleeping,
and you see gobs and gobs of mountains of trash
all over the place. It's just not an inviting environment.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I'm just wondering, you know, from a policy standpoint, and
of course there's a city that is out of money,
like a lot of American citizen cities. But I'm just wondering,
from a policy standpoint, could something incrementally have been done,
or can still something be done of show of you know,
i'd have cops everywhere exactly.
Speaker 11 (28:05):
But I thought of this myself because again, as a
resident there and as somebody who covers the local government,
I've often marveled at the priorities. What draws passion from
the city council and immediate action. And I might remind
you of an event that happened recently, the trees in
downtown Los Angeles that were hacked by a homeless man
(28:28):
who was clearly having some issues, knocked all these trees down,
and we saw press conferences, we saw nonprofits stepping up.
We will rebuild these trees, we will replant, and that
is an important issue. You want an urban canopy's This
is not me discounting the importance of replacing those trees.
But around the same time, Mark, two people got mowed
(28:51):
down by a homeless guy with a machete. It's same guy,
different attacks, and you don't have the same kind of
response from the city government about how serious that is
and how you can't rebuild people and you can't rebuild coals.
It's sad that we lost a tree. You can replant
(29:12):
a tree, but you can't replant coals, and you can't
replant two people walking around downtown. I'm sorry one died,
one did not die, but was very seriously injured.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
A chef. You know, Yeah, the outrage that should follow
did follow, but it was sort of passing. And then
you're right, the community mobilization that could find itself coming
together around that just didn't materialize.
Speaker 11 (29:43):
There's not been a single elected city official stand outside
downtown Los Angeles and say enough is enough, no more
weasel words about what we're experiencing here. It's time to
put a stop to this. We are not going to
lie this behavior to go on. We are going to
clean up this environment for residents and businesses in this
(30:05):
densely populated neighborhood that powers so much of the city
because of all the business activity that takes place there.
We cannot let downtown be lost.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And you know, I see the mayor as a political
figure taking out a lot of water for a lot
of I think defensible reasons. But that's the kind of
things she could do. I mean again, in a city
strained for resources, then you look to private industry, you
look to any ways, any of the ways in which
a community can fund a lot of these grassroots efforts.
But that would be a way I think she could
(30:36):
book a win or something in the wind column. But
that's a you're right, it's a window on all of
downtown and the situation in downtown LA and Cole's closes August.
Speaker 11 (30:46):
Third, August third, so you have some time to enjoy
it down there. I'll see you there. We'll shoot some pools.
I'd love it, I really would love it. Michael Monks
and the story not the best in downtown LA. Another business,
but this one, after one hundred and sixteen years in business,
Cole's French Dip, one of the oldest LA restaurants, closing
(31:07):
its doors for good. It's the Conway Show, Mark Thompson
sitting in on KFI AM six forty We're live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio 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 iHeartRadio app.
It's k IF I am six forty and you're listening
to The Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, I am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It is The Conway Show, Thompsons sitting in on this
Monday with much going on. A lot of it is
in the state of Texas that we'll get to pretty
immediately here, and then a lot in southern California six
months after the Eaton and palis Age fires. Signs of progress, recovery,
(00:32):
also frustration. We'll get into all of that. My back
is killing me. Steffush and Krozier and Matt. That's why
I am standing through today's presentation. What did you do,
mister Thompson?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I have.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You wanna know the real story? You wanna the glamorous story? Hmmm?
Which is sexier? Well, of course the glamorous story is sexier, baby,
all right. So I was at the Thompson in a
State last night. Good start for the Glen Yes polishing
some of the Emmy Awards and the Peaboddy Award and
(01:11):
the People's Choice Award. My plaque from YouTube, for the
hundreds of thousands of people who've found my show. And
as I twisted to reach for that second Emmy, which
is of course on the top shelf, I screamed something
in my back and I fell to the floor. My
(01:32):
screams could not be heard by anyone. Gross. Oh yes,
because of the vastness of my estate. You heard your
echo come back to you. Yes. And then one of
the clean up people at the gift shop there on
the Thompson estate grounds heard my screams and was able
(01:53):
to help me to my feet. You saw Thompson. But
advil and attitude is all I have to get us
through this show, So let's get it on. In Texas,
there is the supreme tragedy and loss of life associated
with the Texas floods, But there is the breaking news
(02:16):
of the moment out of McAllen, Texas. A man with
an assault rifle has now been killed after shooting at
border patrol. It was in a facility in Texas, and
our Alex Stone is there. What's up, Alex Stone?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's all a big TV person's name. Drop everything that
you just said a moment ago. Yeah, all those emmys
out there, well be true. It's the hemorrhoids. That's why
you're not how you.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
How dare you but he got the hemorrhoids from lifting
all those awards.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That's true, Yes, thank you there hemorrhoids. There's a trail
of breadcrumbs back to my awards always.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
But on a much more serious note, yeah, a lot
a lot of work underway right now that they're trying
to figure out a motive in this. And the front
doors of the US Customs and Border Protection Building McCallen
have bullets through them. They've been boarding them up today.
So it was around four o'clock in the morning. Twenty
seven year old guy Ryan Muskada is his name. He
(03:13):
had been reported out of another town, the nearby McCallen
at around four am. Then six am police say he
showed up outside of the building and began firing. This
is where the heavily armed Border patrol, essentially their SWAT
team is housed. You know, the big guns come out.
This is what it sounded like. Somebody who pulled up
(03:35):
outside to go to the airport, which is next door.
That is the gun battle, and it is right next
door to the McCallen airport. So the airport was shut
down for a while because they didn't know what was
going on. One McCallen police officer was shot in the knee,
Two agents of the federal agents had some minor injuries,
and Muskado was shot and killed. Now they have no
(03:58):
idea what he deal was that he pulls up it
was like five point fifty three in the morning and
begins firing into the building, and they're trying it to
piece it all together.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
There were many, many, many dozens of rounds fired from
by the suspect towards the building and towards agents in
that building.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
So on the skater's car he had words written in
what they think is Latin in spray paint, and they're
working now to figure out the relevance of those words
of do they mean anything to what went on? Is
this a mental health thing?
Speaker 7 (04:27):
The chief saying, there's a message we don't understand on
a vehicle. May be some Latin words on it, but
I don't know if they're necessarily related to the reason
is here or have any relationship at all with regard
to why this happened.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
He never got in the building, He only fired from
the outside before he was shot and killed. And in
the car they thought, well, maybe there's explosives out here,
They shut down the airport, they brought in the bomb squad.
They didn't find anything in there. Y had a couple
of carry on style bags that had more AMMO and
stuff in them. But they don't think he's linked to
anybody else. They don't think there are any more threats
the motive, they say. They they're going to look at
(05:00):
his social media, talk to family. They don't know if
I will.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Take lead and as a results, as I'm sorry as
any this particular incident involves both a federal assault and
a federal police officer, and an assault on a federal
building as well.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Obviously, with everything going on right now, it's easy to
jump to well, this was you know, going after the
border patrol and US Customs and Border Protection. But they
don't know he's from Michigan. He had Michigan plates on
his car. They don't know how long he'd been around McCallen,
why he was there from Michigan. They're going to talk
to family, they're gonna, you know, look at at anything
that he's been writing recently that they may answer some
(05:36):
of this. And then the whole thing about him being
reported missing at around four am from a town just
outside of McCallen. Did he report himself missing? Is there
a family member who did? Police said they don't know
who called it in.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, somebody missing exactly, Yeah, and at.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Four o'clock in the morning and saying, well he's missing
and we don't know where he is. And then an
hour and forty five minutes later he turns up and
opens fire on a border patrol.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
The other thing that's odd to me, Alex Stone, is
that if you're there to do damage, you wait until sunrise,
you know, you'll wait until there's more activity. He pulls up,
you know, pre dawn hours and just opens fire, or.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
You wait until agents are coming in or out. Yeah,
so there's a target there. This was just spraying into
the building and they immediately responded. So the initial in
the radio traffic, initially somebody saw them and reported in
over radio traffic to McCallan police that somebody with a
long gun was seen outside of the Border Patrol office
and they began responding, and then he began firing, and
(06:35):
then it was the exchange of gunfire. But you know,
I mean there's these you know, First Amendment auditors who
go out with long guns and stand outside of government
buildings and try to antagonize police and try to get
them to do something. So just seeing somebody standing outside
of the building on public property with a weapon, especially
(06:56):
in Texas, that they're not immediately going to assume that's
an active shooter.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Telly opened fire and then began firing.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And the fact that he had a bunch of ammo
with him, I mean a ton of ammo. I mean again,
these are all just sort of like you wonder, was
this the first and a list of places that he
was going to stop or was he looking for you know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, they don't know. Yeah, clearly, and the police chief
said today clearly this was premeditated in the way that
he pulled in and that he had the weapon and
may have had more weapons and had the ammunition and
began firing. But beyond that, they don't know how planned
outa was or exactly what he planned on doing. I mean,
he had to know that. Maybe he didn't anticipate that
this is where the SWAT team was inside this building
(07:38):
the Border patrols equivalent, and they call these teams. I
think it's the boor tag team where they're the ones
who went in to you know, they go into the
school shootings and search the woods when there's a high
profile person not just immigration related but in general who
they're going after. And right now, Travis Decker up in Idaho,
the Border Patrols team is taking part in that. This
(08:01):
is the most heavily armed team that the Border Patrol
has that happened to be in that building.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But they don't know if he.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Knew that or if he just thought these were regular
Border patrol agents and opened fire there and then they
came out and killed.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Him in just wild Yeah, interesting to put this all together. Alex,
thank you, always appreciate you talking to yep Alex Tone
from ABC again. The active shooter at the office in McAllen, Texas,
the US Customs and Border Protection office there, and he
has been taken out by return fire. Believed to be
(08:33):
no other threats. The other thing that is grabbing headlines
comes out of Texas also, this catastrophic flash flooding in
central Texas. I mean, it's heartbreaking. These kids, twenty eight children,
and the details now showing an administrative failure and a
(08:56):
failure on the part of decision makers to pay or
the minuscule amounts of money and paying those minuscule amounts
of money to get a warning system in place. Again,
no flood warning system. We'll get into some of that
as we continue.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
This flooding in Texas is incredible and story is unreal,
and it has so many different layers to it. You know,
now here's sort of an overall sense of it, and
then we'll get into I'll give you a rough idea
of what was going on.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I mean, we're learning more about the victims of the
flood disaster and the survivors trying to come to terms
with what they witnessed.
Speaker 9 (09:41):
I had to swamp through a window and then hold
on to the meter box outside of the house.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Twenty eight year old Christian Fell says he stood on
the electric meter box outside his home for nearly three
hours to stay alive.
Speaker 10 (09:55):
It was an absolute force of nature that I've never
witnessed before.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Banda Sue Jones, her husband and four kids evacuated moments
before the worst of the flooding hit.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
For the time we crossed the bridge to when everything's
getting swept away was I mean probably ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Twenty seven year old Julian Ryan died heroically saving his
kids by placing them on a floating mattress. Beloved high
school teacher Jeff Wilson, who taught autobody repair, also lost
his life in the flood. His wife and son are missing.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
He was able to build relationships with kids, maybe kids
that didn't fit the traditional classroom model.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And at Camp Mystic, where more than two dozen campers
were swept away in the night, at least eleven are
confirmed dead, among them Janie Hunt, the nine year old
cousin of Kansas City Chief's owner Clark Hunt. His wife
announcing Janie's death, saying, if your heart is broken, I
assure you God is near. Eighteen year old camp counselor
Chloe Childress is being remembered for her work with senior citizens.
(11:00):
The head of her high school saying Chloe made space
for others to feel safe, valued, and brave.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean, this is heartbreaking to hear these descriptions of
these amazing people. It's like they took the sweetest souls
they could.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Those who knew Camp Mystic's owner Dick Eastland say he
died heroically trying to rescue campers. His grandson writing if
he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was
the only other way saving the girls that he so
loved and cared for.
Speaker 9 (11:29):
He was, you know, a man that made everyone feel
safe and seen.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
He was just an extremely helpless person and.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He should want it until the very end. I mean,
it seems as though it was an incident informed by
a lot of heroism, amazing stuff, But there are stories
of survival that come from this, and then there are
questions about how this happened. I'll get to how this happened,
I mean beyond the meteorology, beyond the atmospheric of it,
(12:01):
like why weren't their warnings or exactly what went down.
We'll get to that in a second. But the story
of survival is compelling.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
We're learning more about the victims of the flood disaster
and the survivors trying to come to terms with what
they witnessed.
Speaker 9 (12:16):
I had to swamp through a window and then hold
on to the meter box outside of the house.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Twenty eight year old Christian Fell says he stood on
the electric meter box outside his home for nearly three
hours to stay alive. Twenty seven year old Julian Ryan
died heroically saving his kids by placing them on a
floating mattress. Beloved high school teacher Jeff Wilson, who taught
autobody repair, also lost his life in the flood. His
(12:44):
wife and son are missing.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
He was able to build relationships with kids, maybe kids
that didn't fit the traditional classroom model.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And at Camp miss It, where more than two dozen
campers were swept away in the night, at least eleven
are confirmed dead, among them Jane Hunt, the nine year
old cousin of Kansas City Chief's owner Cark Hunt, his
wife announcing Janie's death, saying, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You heard all of that, So I wanted to share
with you the outstanding questions about why the warnings weren't heated?
Were their warnings? And if not, why not?
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Blatlope River just about one hundred feet behind me here,
But on Friday, at this very time, it was nearly
one hundred yards over its banks here, well above me
and well beyond where I'm standing, uprooting all kinds of trees,
leaving behind a trail of debris. Summer camps and campgrounds
like this one popular draw here in Kirk County, where
dozens of people were simply swept away and killed after
(13:44):
the river rose rapidly from all that torrential rain. Video
from nearby Center Pointe, Texas here shows the moment the
river started swelling, and then minutes later the landscape becomes unrecognizable,
submerged in the floodwaters. As a recovery process began. Many
have expressed concern about the lack of early warnings from
local and federal authorities. While flood alerts started coming in
(14:07):
during the day on Thursday, the first alert warning people
to evacuate Kirk County did not come until four to
three in the morning, most people obviously in a deep
sleep at that point. Some blame the National Weather Service
for underestimating the flood risk and for lack of urgent alerts.
Others note that Kirk County does not have its own
(14:28):
flood warning system. We spoke with one family, Carmen Hime
and her h year old son Esteban. They recalled the
moment they decided to grab all their stuff, stuff it
into their RV and get away from this RV campsite
where they had been celebrating the holiday.
Speaker 10 (14:43):
I was thinking, like, oh, it's time to go to
the water park. No, the water park is upside.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You thought she was calling it waking you up for fun, But.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
No, this was bad, This was a warning.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
What do you think of this whole situation?
Speaker 10 (15:00):
Scared? Scared, nervous?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Was scared you the most?
Speaker 10 (15:04):
The river rising up put it sound like racking and
all of that, like tree branches falling off.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The whole thing happened so quickly, as has been mentioned
in everything. That's why it's called a flash flood. It
happened so quickly. Look, they're banging on National Weather Service people,
and I can just tell you straight up, I've read
through this. There is nothing that the National Weather Service
(15:34):
did that was falling down on the job, not getting
it done, not getting the warning out, not doing a
rigorous enough check of the forecast. It predicted seven inches
of rain, and they predicted between five and seven inches.
(15:54):
By the way, if they had stopped right there, I
get that there were thirteen inches that fell, et cetera.
But if they stop right there at seven inches of rain,
that's certainly sufficient to swell all those floodwaters to the
same point in those flood prone regions doing all this damage.
So when they issued this catastrophic damage, severe threat to
(16:17):
human life, warning that was at four oh three in
the morning that has now been documented, and you just
hearn there is no way to get word out, and
local officials say they didn't expect such an intense downpour. Yeah,
we get it. But the idea is you're supposed to
have a flood warning system, like a tornado warning. Those
(16:41):
of you who have come to the West coast through Kansas,
through Oklahoma, through Nebraska, through Colorado, you know there are
systems there that actually produce a loud audio sound. It's
like a it's an alarm, it's a siren. And they
(17:01):
considered a flood warning system like that a warning siren
about six or seven years ago, but it was too
expensive and they waved it off. And I think all
of these souls could have been saved if they'd had it.
It's also a question as to whether or not they
(17:22):
should have been there with even any threat of flooding
in that region. This flash flooding happens just that fast.
A real sad A coda is that the National Weather
Service people who have again they've been in they've been
on the griddle because they are being blamed for this
(17:45):
on some level. As I've just told you, there's no
evidence that they blew anything from what I can see.
But the other irony is they actually had extra people on.
National Weather Service had extra staffers working because they this
is a severe weather event. We were anticipating a severe
weather event, and that's why we brought additional forecasters on.
(18:06):
So sometimes the problem isn't one you can point the
finger at another party in talking about to all the
public officials in Texas, look at the clear need of
a warning system there and the loss of those sweet
souls that should certainly say something about what you need
to do. Get the federal government to help you with
(18:29):
the spending if you need it.
Speaker 8 (18:32):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
It was a pretty active day in Los Angeles today.
I don't know quite how to frame this, but if
you were in MacArthur Park or around MacArthur Park, there
was a show going on, and it was a show
of law enforcement and politics and it all came together.
Kfi's Michael Monks is here to take us through. This
(19:01):
was quite a scene.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
I mean, you are absolutely right when you see some
of the videos that have come out of these raids,
as they've been called. You're usually seeing maybe three or
four federal vehicles show up, eight to ten agents. They're
at a car wash, they're at the home depot. This
was a display like we have not seen, and what
it was is still unclear. We're talking about eleven o'clock
(19:25):
this morning, MacArthur Park, Los Angeles. Military vehicles, horses, about
one hundred agents and National Guard troops marching through the park.
And as you know, MacArthur Park is pretty well full
of immigrant population of probably varying legal status, a lot
of vendors nearby, some businesses nearby, and a lot of
(19:47):
people in now The park is also troubled in other ways,
a lot of homeless, a lot of open air drug
use going on there. But this sudden show of force
comes out of nowhere, and in the middle of it,
La Mayor Karen Bash shows up to confront these federal agents.
One of the federal agents hands the mayor a telephone,
his phone, she's talking to somebody, still unclear who she
(20:10):
hands the phone back. Protesters are there and after just
a few minutes of this show, no enforcement action, nobody detained.
Everybody leaves and that was it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
You know, a lot of these incidents, I'll just call
them are It seems to me informed by a desire
for publicity of one sort. That's why you'll remember just
a few weeks ago, maybe it was six weeks ago,
maybe it was eight weeks ago, when the enforcement process
began nationwide. You had local news stations following the ICE
(20:46):
agents out. You had Doctor Phil showing up at that
and celebrated detaining of the I think a guy and
his brother or two people. And I felt that was
a desire on the part of the administration. There's nothing
particularly wrong with it, how to get the word out
that we're we're cracking down. Well, so you're not alone
in that thought.
Speaker 11 (21:04):
I'll point out because there was a press conference shortly
after at La City Hall. The mayor was there, some
council members. Council President Marquise Harris Dawson kind of said
the same thing because it doesn't seem clear what was
going on. Here's what Marquise Harris Dawson, the council president,
had to say this morning look.
Speaker 12 (21:22):
Like a staging for a TikTok video, yep. And what
we say to Border Patrol is the council if you
want to film in La you should apply for a
film permit like everybody else, and stop trying to scare
the Bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great
city and disrupt our economy.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
They do every day they are here.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
They disrupt the economy, and they cost this state, in
this city and county millions and millions of dollars in
real money, but also the kind you can't count. And
that's making people scared to leave their houses and making
people scared to go to school and to the doctor
and to call the police or the fire department when
something is wrong.
Speaker 11 (22:01):
So that was Council President Marquise Harris Dawson saying exactly
that this looked like a publicity stunt, and really the
actions are terrifying a community. And so you are seeing
a lot of the street vendors close up shop. You
are seeing a lot less activity in those areas like
MacArthur Park in the Fashion district. Some of the swap
swap meets, they're not getting the crowds that they used to.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's just it's wild to see, honestly, the politics of
publicity around this issue and the issue itself around the
show of force come together at the same moment just
really crazy. So when we come back in talking about
(22:43):
businesses that are no longer, one hugely famous business in
downtown is closing and we want to talk about it
with you next. Michael Bunks will stay with us.
Speaker 8 (22:55):
You're listening to Tim conwaytoon You're on demand from KFI AMCIX.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Mark Thompson sitting in with Michael Monks here talking about
what was going on downtown LA today. It was a
huge show of force on the part of immigration enforcement
and a huge show of force on the part of
political enforcement. We kind of addressed that, but there was
something else that's happened in downtown LA and it may
be I'm curious to know a function of some of
(23:24):
the other stuff you talked about, Michael. I don't know
if this is foot traffic or you know, commercial businesses
suffering more downtown. But a major institution is closing.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
A major institution is closing. In fact, the longest oldest
restaurant in Los Angeles they claimed to be, has announced
that it's closing its doors. And I first started to
see some posts on social media over the weekend. I
put in a call, I sent an email to this
group and they confirmed it this morning in a statement,
calls the originators of the French dip.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, people think Philips, but I guess.
Speaker 11 (23:56):
Well, Calls and Philips have had a long time rivalry
over who dip to sandwich and os you first? But
now there will only be one left to make that
claim because Cole's the originator of the French dip. That's
their full name. That's how petty they are about this
French dip thing. They're closing their doors on August third,
after one hundred and seventeen years in business on Sixth Street.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Now what do they say about the reason.
Speaker 11 (24:21):
Look, you're probably gonna hear some things from staff, as
you always do from the restaurants that close down rather suddenly,
that some mismanagement and all. We haven't heard that side
publicly yet. What the restaurant management is saying publicly is
we've had a rough few years in downtown Los Angeles,
starting with COVID and the way that hammered business in downtown.
(24:45):
Like many businesses, they say the writers and the actors
strike took a lot of people out of out of
the social scene because they weren't working. There's also the
high cost of doing business in Los Angeles period, whether
it's how much you have to pay, how much you
have to pay in fees to the city, how much
your rent might be, although I don't know how long
they've been renting that space, what kind of business set
(25:08):
up that might be. They're in the building that was
home to the Pacific Electric Company that operated the subway,
so there's a lot of history related to that company
in the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I want to say, there's sort of that Art Deco
kind of architecture around there.
Speaker 11 (25:22):
Yeah, and they also say crime and if you make
your way to this block of Sixth Street as you're
heading into the fashion district from the business district, it's messy.
It's really messy. It's literally filthy, and then it's just
generally messy. A lot of homeless, a lot of it
was seeming drug addicts having mental health episodes in the
(25:44):
middle of the street. It's just not a great location
right now. And it's a real shame because you know,
I live around the corner of been Nicoles. Many times
it is nice to sit at Cole's and take in
that history.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, they've got the boots and the just the vibe
of like old school, classic downtown.
Speaker 11 (26:07):
La And my understanding is that the tables in the
restaurant are made from some of those old train cars.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
That's true. Yeah.
Speaker 11 (26:14):
The weird thing is just recently a restaurant opened next
door to it, a Jamaican restaurant, and I took note
of that because I thought, is that a good sign?
You know, like, if you're taking a chance on this block,
knowing how expensive it is, knowing how volatile it is,
is that a good sign. There's also a very nice
little wine bar that's a couple doors down from this,
so you know that attracts a certain crowd. So in
(26:37):
spite of the conditions, there is still an enterprising spirit
on the block. It just looks like Coles And it's
just a shock to say Coals is closing. Coles has
not been able to weather this any longer.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it doesn't sound sounds like those other businesses are
different kinds of business. I mean Cole's really had the
old school feel and had the old school feel and traditions,
even the way servers interacted and the whole vibe there.
It's but it's a sign, as you say, perhaps of
a stretched downtown.
Speaker 11 (27:10):
In so many ways, it's not getting any better, and
it's struggled since the pandemic. The pandemic at what I've
learned is it really halted Downtown's forward momentum. There was
a lot of good stuff happening down there, but COVID
when it shut everything down, it allowed some chaos to
run a monk, and that chaos has not been put
(27:33):
back underground yet. They have not put the lid on
that at all. You see a lot of manic episodes
on the streets. You see a lot of streets sleeping,
and you see gobs and gobs of mountains of trash
all over the place. It's just not an inviting environment.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I'm just wondering, you know, from a policy standpoint, and
of course there's a city that is out of money,
like a lot of American citizen cities. But I'm just wondering,
from a policy standpoint, could something incrementally have been done,
or can still something be done of show of you know,
i'd have cops everywhere exactly.
Speaker 11 (28:05):
But I thought of this myself because again, as a
resident there and as somebody who covers the local government,
I've often marveled at the priorities. What draws passion from
the city council and immediate action. And I might remind
you of an event that happened recently, the trees in
downtown Los Angeles that were hacked by a homeless man
(28:28):
who was clearly having some issues, knocked all these trees down,
and we saw press conferences, we saw nonprofits stepping up.
We will rebuild these trees, we will replant, and that
is an important issue. You want an urban canopy's This
is not me discounting the importance of replacing those trees.
But around the same time, Mark, two people got mowed
(28:51):
down by a homeless guy with a machete. It's same guy,
different attacks, and you don't have the same kind of
response from the city government about how serious that is
and how you can't rebuild people and you can't rebuild coals.
It's sad that we lost a tree. You can replant
(29:12):
a tree, but you can't replant coals, and you can't
replant two people walking around downtown. I'm sorry one died,
one did not die, but was very seriously injured.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
A chef. You know, Yeah, the outrage that should follow
did follow, but it was sort of passing. And then
you're right, the community mobilization that could find itself coming
together around that just didn't materialize.
Speaker 11 (29:43):
There's not been a single elected city official stand outside
downtown Los Angeles and say enough is enough, no more
weasel words about what we're experiencing here. It's time to
put a stop to this. We are not going to
lie this behavior to go on. We are going to
clean up this environment for residents and businesses in this
(30:05):
densely populated neighborhood that powers so much of the city
because of all the business activity that takes place there.
We cannot let downtown be lost.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And you know, I see the mayor as a political
figure taking out a lot of water for a lot
of I think defensible reasons. But that's the kind of
things she could do. I mean again, in a city
strained for resources, then you look to private industry, you
look to any ways, any of the ways in which
a community can fund a lot of these grassroots efforts.
But that would be a way I think she could
(30:36):
book a win or something in the wind column. But
that's a you're right, it's a window on all of
downtown and the situation in downtown LA and Cole's closes August.
Speaker 11 (30:46):
Third, August third, so you have some time to enjoy
it down there. I'll see you there. We'll shoot some pools.
I'd love it, I really would love it. Michael Monks
and the story not the best in downtown LA. Another business,
but this one, after one hundred and sixteen years in business,
Cole's French Dip, one of the oldest LA restaurants, closing
(31:07):
its doors for good. It's the Conway Show, Mark Thompson
sitting in on KFI AM six forty We're live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio 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 iHeartRadio app.
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