Speaker 1: Well, the city council might only give you sixty seconds
Speaker 1: to where your grievance is.
Speaker 2: Oh hi, I'd like to go to the first caller
Speaker 2: on the phone.
Speaker 1: Well, if you're lucky, now we're giving you a full
Speaker 1: sixty minutes. It's a KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 1: and our long recap of the day's top local stories
Speaker 1: on your drive home. And unlike the City Council, we're
Speaker 1: the perfect vehicle to actually get your voice heard. The
Speaker 1: KADC News Blitz with Randy Wang starts no.
Speaker 3: It is the News Blitz with Randy Wang on Talk
Speaker 3: radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily rundown of
Speaker 3: everything you need to know that's going on in Southern
Speaker 3: California as well as the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego,
Speaker 3: and the Central Valley. I curate a list every single
Speaker 3: day of all the stories that I found that you
Speaker 3: may have missed going on in the Golden State at
Speaker 3: Randy Wang Radio dot substack dot com. You can also
Speaker 3: check out our YouTube channel where you can watch the
Speaker 3: full episodes of this show and check out clips from
Speaker 3: this show, and of course, watch the live John Phillipshow
Speaker 3: at YouTube dot com. Slash at Randy Wang Radio. We
Speaker 3: start with a scary story in Claremont, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: if I haven't said it enough, Claremont is a fantastic place.
Speaker 3: Claremont is gorgeous, and if I didn't have to worry
Speaker 3: about commuting, it would be one of the places I
Speaker 3: would consider living or keeping a footprint in southern California.
Speaker 3: Like you know, the master plan is to live in
Speaker 3: Santa Fe part time, have a little place somewhere in
Speaker 3: southern California, and maybe have a little place in the
Speaker 3: Bay Area.
Speaker 2: Let's see how successful this whole YouTube thing is for us.
Speaker 3: But the last time I was in Claremont for the
Speaker 3: governor's debate, it was so beautiful, especially like not just
Speaker 3: the neighborhoods. We stayed at a friend of John's to
Speaker 3: record the show or to do the show live from
Speaker 3: noon to three, and then went to you know, put
Speaker 3: on a college to watch the debate. But I love
Speaker 3: everything about a college town like that, especially how walkable
Speaker 3: it is. You know, that's something that I really love.
Speaker 3: And it's there's great restaurants, there's great bars. It's just
Speaker 3: got a beautiful vibe and you feel very safe, unlike
Speaker 3: a lot of parts of La County.
Speaker 2: Claremont is gorgeous.
Speaker 3: But one thing that you'll know about me is while
Speaker 3: I am an avid walker. In fact, I walked five
Speaker 3: miles in Toronto this morning before I started doing my show. Well,
Speaker 3: I was listening to all the stories, but before I
Speaker 3: come back to the hotel room, compile the blog, get
Speaker 3: all the graphics together for the John Phillips Show, all
Speaker 3: the other stuff I have to do.
Speaker 2: I walked for five miles.
Speaker 3: Walking has been one of the best things that I
Speaker 3: have done in the last I really got into walking,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe only four or five years ago, but
Speaker 3: it has been a game changer. When I started doing
Speaker 3: those eight to ten mile days in Santa Fe. I
Speaker 3: just every day that I walk for at least a
Speaker 3: half hour is a day I fall asleep easier, even
Speaker 3: if that's the only exercise I'm doing.
Speaker 2: And you know, I also do pilates and stuff.
Speaker 3: I believe so much in the power of walking, not
Speaker 3: just for your physical health, not just for sleep, but
Speaker 3: also your mental health. It just it is such a
Speaker 3: good feeling. And I love walking around a city, whether
Speaker 3: it's a big metropolis like Toronto or a little town
Speaker 3: college town like Claremont. But one thing that you won't
Speaker 3: hear a lot from me is me talking about going hiking.
Speaker 3: I don't have a great track record with going hiking
Speaker 3: because well, I'm not the most coordinated person, and when
Speaker 3: the footing can be uneven, I've had some incidents. Now,
Speaker 3: most of these incidents happened when I was in way
Speaker 3: worse shape. And when you're in way worse shape and
Speaker 3: you're not used to walking all the time and your
Speaker 3: wife takes you to Switzer Falls, yeah you might twist
Speaker 3: your ankle.
Speaker 2: I've had a few of those incidents.
Speaker 3: I also used to not like hiking because I used
Speaker 3: to buy really cheap shoes, and one thing about hiking
Speaker 3: is you've got to make sure you have really, really
Speaker 3: good traction. I actually have actual hiking boots now if
Speaker 3: I will go hiking, But even then, it's not something
Speaker 3: that I choose to do very often, because while I
Speaker 3: love being outdoors and I love walking around, I like
Speaker 3: managed nature.
Speaker 2: I like curated nature.
Speaker 3: I like the Mission trails hiking in Carmel by the Sea,
Speaker 3: very very very very taken care of lands with you know,
Speaker 3: almost like like mulch.
Speaker 2: For the footing.
Speaker 3: It's so soft it's just you know, it's well taken
Speaker 3: care of, it's well manicured. That's what I like. I
Speaker 3: like manicured wildlife. I like Golden Gate Park in San Francisco,
Speaker 3: one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.
Speaker 3: And if you walk just a little north, or you
Speaker 3: walk just a little south, all of a sudden, now
Speaker 3: you're back in the city.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: When it comes to like driving all the way out
Speaker 3: to a remote location, maybe you don't have cell service,
Speaker 3: you're going out into the woods, you're left alone to
Speaker 3: the elements. I know there's a lot of people that
Speaker 3: love that. I'm not one of those people. I like
Speaker 3: a little bit of nature in an urban environment, but
Speaker 3: I can't handle full on nature. You'll never see me camping.
Speaker 3: That's just not who I am. And one of the
Speaker 3: reasons for that is snakes. I'm Indiana Jones in one
Speaker 3: very specific way. I don't like snakes, and stories like
Speaker 3: this are gonna keep me away from hiking for a
Speaker 3: very long time. When it comes to all kinds of wildlife,
Speaker 3: I'm just not used to it now. I mean the
Speaker 3: times that I've actually seen a snake on a hiking
Speaker 3: trail two but I remember them very well. I saw
Speaker 3: a snake once when I was hiking Griffith Park, and well,
Speaker 3: for a while I was like, you know, I could
Speaker 3: just walk around my neighborhood less chances for wildlife except
Speaker 3: for coyotes. But that's a whole other story for a
Speaker 3: whole other day. And then I remember very specifically we
Speaker 3: had moved from Burbank to Recita in a townhouse. And
Speaker 3: the one thing that changed for us when we moved
Speaker 3: from the house in Burbank was we had a pretty
Speaker 3: big backyard. We had two little dogs, so it's not
Speaker 3: like we needed a big backyard, but this townhouse had
Speaker 3: a tiny, little front yard, so you really if you
Speaker 3: wanted to walk the dog, you had to walk them.
Speaker 3: And there were you know, we had little, tiny dogs.
Speaker 3: And one day I was like, you know, I'm getting
Speaker 3: kind of bored of Balboa Park, and uh, well you either,
Speaker 3: can you know how this is another thing. I know,
Speaker 3: I bag on La and the Valley all the time,
Speaker 3: but you go to a place like Golden Gate Park,
Speaker 3: which you know is the central park of San Francisco,
Speaker 3: and you just see amazing splendor. It is gorgeous, it
Speaker 3: is beautiful. There's a waterfall in the middle of it,
Speaker 3: there's a buffalo farm. And then you go to the
Speaker 3: biggest park in the San Fernando Valley, Balboa Park, the
Speaker 3: one where they put in the fake lake, and well,
Speaker 3: it's so overrun by ducks that if you're on the
Speaker 3: main path you will be stepping on duck poop the
Speaker 3: entire time. Or you can go outside of the main
Speaker 3: path into the more wildy areas where you'll see people
Speaker 3: living there. And I stop going to Balboa Park and
Speaker 3: I stop bringing my dogs there because one day I'm
Speaker 3: walking around on the outside areas because I don't want
Speaker 3: to deal with the ducks, and there were several homeless
Speaker 3: people living there, including one guy who had a loose pitfall,
Speaker 3: and my dogs looked like lunch, so I picked them
Speaker 3: up and I turned the other direction and stopped doing that.
Speaker 3: So at one point I was like, Okay, maybe I'll try.
Speaker 3: You know, there's lots of hiking trails up in Porter
Speaker 3: Ranch that's not too far. So I find a hiking trail,
Speaker 3: I park, put the leashes on the little doggie, and
Speaker 3: within two minutes I see a snake and I say nope.
Speaker 3: I turn around and I say I'm not doing this.
Speaker 3: So what happened in Claremont, Well, a college athlete was
Speaker 3: hiking and taking in the beauty of nature and he
Speaker 3: got attacked by a rattle steak. He got bit by
Speaker 3: a rattle steak. It is caution if you actually go
Speaker 3: watch the story that I have on the website, it
Speaker 3: will make your skin crawl. What happened to the sky
Speaker 3: because luckily there was a nurse also in the area
Speaker 3: that was helping to calm him down. He went to
Speaker 3: a hospital to get anti venom and then needed more,
Speaker 3: so he got flown to La County General Hospital to
Speaker 3: get even more anti venom, and he was like his
Speaker 3: muscles were twitching all over the place.
Speaker 2: He survived, He's going to be okay, but.
Speaker 3: I don't want to take that risk so for his
Speaker 3: As much as I love the act of walking, and
Speaker 3: I really love walking in urban environments, hiking's just not
Speaker 3: my thing. Never really has. Whether it's the uneven footing,
Speaker 3: it's the wildlife of it all, the lack of self reception.
Speaker 3: I'm just I don't need to be in that much
Speaker 3: wildlife if you're into that, and I'm sure there's lots
Speaker 3: of people listening that are I'm so happy for you,
Speaker 3: but that's just my thing. I've also I've really come
Speaker 3: to the realization this week. And I may have said
Speaker 3: this in the past, I was born in the wrong city.
Speaker 3: I really really was, because I love walking around cool
Speaker 3: urban environments. Just seeing the sideline of Toronto it is incredible.
Speaker 3: But I don't need a big skyline. I mean, I
Speaker 3: love walking around Santa Fe and there's no building there
Speaker 3: taller than three stories. I love walking around Dublin. There's
Speaker 3: no building they're taller than like four or five stories.
Speaker 3: But it is pretty cool being in because you can
Speaker 3: just kind of wander and look up see the c
Speaker 3: N Tower and know kind of where you are and
Speaker 3: how to get back to where you're going. Like, I
Speaker 3: haven't looked up a map the entire time I'm here,
Speaker 3: except to like jot down. Okay, I should check out
Speaker 3: the menu at this restaurant or check out the menu
Speaker 3: at this bar. Made it over to the Stillery District
Speaker 3: this morning. It was beautiful. So just a warning to
Speaker 3: all you ad hikers out there. I've seen way more
Speaker 3: stories this year than in recent past about rattlesnake bites
Speaker 3: and that is going to keep me inside a big
Speaker 3: city and do my walk in that way, or you
Speaker 3: get to San Francisco. You get a little taste of both.
Speaker 3: And you could also do that at Griffith. No knocking
Speaker 3: on Griffith. Griffith is great, it's just getting to Griffith
Speaker 3: if you live in the valley is a colossal pain.
Speaker 2: In the ass.
Speaker 3: When I did the morning show, I could do Griffith
Speaker 3: because I'd get off at ten am and it was
Speaker 3: easier to get there.
Speaker 2: But nowadays, oh boy, especially with my schedule.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't really do a whole lot of
Speaker 3: traveling because.
Speaker 2: It's impossible to get anywhere.
Speaker 3: Even once we tried going to this hiking trail in
Speaker 3: Tarzana south of Ventura Boulevard at Resita the Cabeero Canyon,
Speaker 3: which is very beautiful.
Speaker 2: Another thing that I don't like about.
Speaker 3: Hiking is sometimes, especially if you're walking dogs, they start
Speaker 3: stepping in some water and maybe there's something in that water.
Speaker 3: I have had my dog get sick from that, So
Speaker 3: just another thing. But even just trying to get there
Speaker 3: it would take like twenty minutes. Now there is so
Speaker 3: much concern up and down the state of California with
Speaker 3: the company Flock Flock operates the license plate reading cameras
Speaker 3: that have assisted law enforcement up and down the state
Speaker 3: of California in things like recovering stolen cars, which if
Speaker 3: you look up how many cars are stolen every single
Speaker 3: day in Los Angeles, it is it is a crazy,
Speaker 3: crazy number. In fact, let's look it up together right now,
Speaker 3: how many cars are stolen in Los Angeles every day.
Speaker 3: Let's see, on average, more than sixty vehicles are stolen
Speaker 3: every day in Los Angeles, totaling twenty five thousand in
Speaker 3: a year. Twenty five thousand cars are stolen in the
Speaker 3: city of Los Angeles every single year. I am not
Speaker 3: surprised by that number, but that is insanity and that's
Speaker 3: why you need this kind of technology.
Speaker 2: But there have been a lot.
Speaker 3: Of privacy advocates that are freaking out about this new
Speaker 3: world of ser that we're in. First off, I'm glad
Speaker 3: that the CEO of Flocks sat down with the news
Speaker 3: to talk about what these cameras do and what they
Speaker 3: don't do. These aren't AI facial recognition cameras that they
Speaker 3: have at grocery outlets to make sure you're not a shoplifter,
Speaker 3: and they're not even capturing video it takes a picture
Speaker 3: of a car and it can identify the license plate,
Speaker 3: and if it gets flagged because that car was stolen,
Speaker 3: it alerts law enforcement. I don't see what the problem
Speaker 3: is here, but because of all kinds of privacy concerns,
Speaker 3: especially because these databases have been accessed by the federal government,
Speaker 3: and how we can't work with a federal government. I
Speaker 3: don't even know if it was Ice accessing these databases,
Speaker 3: but people have conflagrated all of that stuff with well,
Speaker 3: we cannot work with the feds.
Speaker 2: It's just it's insane.
Speaker 3: I also find it just incredibly hypocritical that we're all
Speaker 3: concerned about drone programs, like people freaking out about two
Speaker 3: drones instead of one operation by the police an ocean
Speaker 3: side or the flock cameras which currently we don't have
Speaker 3: a contract in the city of la because oh, we're
Speaker 3: freaking out about what these this data can be used for,
Speaker 3: But we don't care that we're surveilling ourselves.
Speaker 2: All day long.
Speaker 3: How many of you have a Fitbit or an Apple Watch.
Speaker 3: You're literally wearing a tracking device. How many of you
Speaker 3: people have an iPhone or a Galaxy, You're literally wearing
Speaker 3: a device on you at all times. That is listening
Speaker 3: to every word that you say, and don't tell me
Speaker 3: that they're not. We've all had the phenomenon where you're
Speaker 3: talking about something and then it shows up in your
Speaker 3: Google ads. This is listening to you all the time.
Speaker 3: And we're also actively putting our lives on social media
Speaker 3: every single day, posting our locations, posting what we're doing,
Speaker 3: posting our food. I've been guilty of it myself, so
Speaker 3: I don't care at all about any of this stuff.
Speaker 3: I want law enforcement to have all the tools that
Speaker 3: they need to stop the twenty five thousand cars a
Speaker 3: year that are stolen in Los Angeles, which is just
Speaker 3: a crazy, crazy figure. It's the News Blitz with Randy
Speaker 3: Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. It's the News
Speaker 3: Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. We are still paying
Speaker 3: for George Gascone's reign of terror. George Gascon was the
Speaker 3: LA County District Attorney for four years from twenty twenty
Speaker 3: one through the end of twenty twenty four. And there's
Speaker 3: some great reporting out there from the people at LA Material,
Speaker 3: which was the news organization.
Speaker 2: They're relatively new.
Speaker 3: I think it's a lot of people that were laid
Speaker 3: off by the La Times in a few years ago.
Speaker 2: And it's a great website.
Speaker 3: They'd one that did that piece of like the Yelp
Speaker 3: reviews of politicians, and yeah, we had a lot of
Speaker 3: fun with the Katie porter Ones, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 3: But they just did a great piece uncovering how much
Speaker 3: money the County of Los Angeles has had to pay
Speaker 3: out in retaliation lawsuit settlements from George Gascone's time as
Speaker 3: La County DA. Because George Gascone was and is a petty,
Speaker 3: petty petty man and would actively retaliate against any Deputy
Speaker 3: District Attorney that was concerned about his policies, spoke out
Speaker 3: against him, and they all lawyered up because they were
Speaker 3: sometimes transferred to other positions, denied promotions, what have you.
Speaker 3: It was an incredibly toxic work environment, which is why
Speaker 3: like ninety percent of the union members of the Deputy
Speaker 3: District Attorneys wanted to support the recall of George Gascon
Speaker 3: because this was the era where you had crooked das
Speaker 3: like Gascon and Pammy Price and Chase A. Boudin, whose
Speaker 3: whole idea was to destroy the machine from the inside out.
Speaker 3: In this nonsensical criminal justice reform insanity that I think
Speaker 3: we have recovered from. But the after effects are all
Speaker 3: those deputy das that were defamed, that were harassed, that
Speaker 3: were transferred, that were demoted. Well now they're getting huge
Speaker 3: payouts from the county because if the county fights these lawsuits,
Speaker 3: they'll have to pay even more. Notably, a friend of
Speaker 3: the show and a guy who ran against George Gascon
Speaker 3: did not win, but John Hattammy he got one of
Speaker 3: those settlements for like one point five million dollars.
Speaker 2: So nice little payday for mister Hittami. There.
Speaker 3: Hey, if you don't get to catch every second of
Speaker 3: this show, well we podcast all of it. But I
Speaker 3: also now post the video of every single show so
Speaker 3: you can watch me stare at you romantically while we
Speaker 3: talk about the news. Check it out at Randy Wang Radio,
Speaker 3: excuse me, YouTube dot com, slash at Randy Wang Radio.
Speaker 3: I put the video version of the show up every
Speaker 3: single night as well as the radio version in case
Speaker 3: you don't get to listen live at five o'clock and
Speaker 3: we're here for you. Make sure you check out all
Speaker 3: the stories I have today. Because I yammer on so
Speaker 3: much I can't even get to all the stories that
Speaker 3: I put on the list, I would need like two
Speaker 3: hours to do all twenty stories.
Speaker 2: Because we're having fun together.
Speaker 3: It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang on KABC. It's
Speaker 3: the Newsplitz with Brandy Wang on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC.
Speaker 3: This is your daily rundown of everything you need to
Speaker 3: know that's going on in Southern California as well as
Speaker 3: the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and the Central Valley.
Speaker 2: I compile a list every.
Speaker 3: Day of all the stories that you may have missed
Speaker 3: that I found interesting at Randywangradio dot substack dot com.
Speaker 3: Check out the YouTube channel YouTube dot com, slash at
Speaker 3: Randy Wang Radio. A new study shows that weaimo is
Speaker 3: safer than human driving. And I know there are a
Speaker 3: lot of people that are very antsy about this technology
Speaker 3: and I was one of those until I got into
Speaker 3: a Weimo. Waimos, of course, have been around in San
Speaker 3: Francisco for quite some time now. You can pretty much
Speaker 3: go around the entire Bay Area. When we go up
Speaker 3: to San Francisco in a couple of weeks, we're gonna
Speaker 3: hopefully be able to take one from SFO because last
Speaker 3: time we couldn't do that, but we're gonna try to.
Speaker 2: Like it says that you can.
Speaker 3: But then when you go on the app, it's like
Speaker 3: just outside of the service area.
Speaker 2: Because I would love to do that.
Speaker 3: It's as soon as we got in one, we felt
Speaker 3: very safe.
Speaker 2: Now. I haven't taken these things on the freeway.
Speaker 3: And I know that there's a lot of kinks to
Speaker 3: be worked out as they're expanding this stuff all over
Speaker 3: the place. But when you're inside and you see all
Speaker 3: the censors, how they're working. Like when you're driving on
Speaker 3: the street and you see people on the sidewalk, the
Speaker 3: little graphics show it's picking up the people.
Speaker 2: It can pick up a dog.
Speaker 3: It does a very very good job because it's paying
Speaker 3: attention at all times.
Speaker 2: That is its job.
Speaker 3: And as a California driver, I don't pay attention at
Speaker 3: all times. I'm a terrible driver, and so is everybody
Speaker 3: else in Los Angeles, although my wife convinced that Canadian
Speaker 3: drivers are terrible, specifically in Toronto. And yeah, there's some
Speaker 3: bad driving here, you know what, I think. I think
Speaker 3: we all think, oh no, this is the town with
Speaker 3: the bad drivers, but it's just everywhere. There's terrible driving
Speaker 3: all the time. Everywhere. People are running late, they're impatient,
Speaker 3: they're staring at their phones, they're coming off of a
Speaker 3: weed high, what have you. There is a lot of
Speaker 3: reasons why there's so much bad driving, and thank goodness
Speaker 3: for technology like automatic breaking when you get too close
Speaker 3: to another car, which, by the way, I think you
Speaker 3: tell me if I'm crazy here, But I think if
Speaker 3: I was in charge of, you know, regulating, let's say,
Speaker 3: the car insurance industry, I would voluntarily invest in every
Speaker 3: policy holder that I had. I would pay to get
Speaker 3: your car retrofitted with an emergency braking system, because I
Speaker 3: have one of those on my Chevy Bolt and it
Speaker 3: is this incredible. It will make sure that you're not
Speaker 3: tailgating a little too close, and if you're not paying attention,
Speaker 3: because we're all awful drivers, it will stop the car
Speaker 3: and scream at you, and then you're not allowed to.
Speaker 2: Use supercrews anymore.
Speaker 3: But I think you would cut down greatly on car
Speaker 3: accidents if you had more of this technology in more cars.
Speaker 3: They're in modern cars, but they're not in older cars.
Speaker 3: So if there was a way to retrofit that, I
Speaker 3: think that it would be advantageous to the insurance companies
Speaker 3: to pay for that, just like I think it should
Speaker 3: be on the insurance companies who don't want to pay
Speaker 3: out for fire claims to help you pay for hardening
Speaker 3: your home.
Speaker 2: Why does it have to be on you?
Speaker 3: What is that premium actually going towards if you don't
Speaker 3: want to pay out anybody? Okay, don't need to sit
Speaker 3: here ranting on insurance, which I tend to do because
Speaker 3: it just seems to be some of the most unethical
Speaker 3: people in the world.
Speaker 2: We're here to talk about weimo.
Speaker 3: I am a big fan of the waimos, and I
Speaker 3: could see a future where, especially in cities that makes
Speaker 3: sense like San Francisco, you really don't need to own
Speaker 3: a car now. There's plenty of reasons to have a car,
Speaker 3: especially if you want to road trip what have you.
Speaker 3: But I hate driving, which again I'm born in the
Speaker 3: wrong city. I realize it every single day that I
Speaker 3: am traveling to other places about how much how much
Speaker 3: La is not a city, and how much I can't
Speaker 3: stand driving. I'm just I love being able to walk
Speaker 3: around and I'm not a huge fan of public transit.
Speaker 2: I just am not.
Speaker 3: I mostly will try to walk everywhere, but when we're
Speaker 3: in San Francisco. I'm not trying to hop on MUNI.
Speaker 3: I've usually got the dogs with me. The Waimo makes
Speaker 3: it so easy. Currently, it is not banded to the
Speaker 3: point where I can even use it in the valley
Speaker 3: where I live. But it's coming to places like Sacramento.
Speaker 3: It's going to be slowly expanding, and while they still
Speaker 3: have things to work out on, you cannot deny that
Speaker 3: it is a better technology, that it is safer, and
Speaker 3: right now one of the only incidents are that they're
Speaker 3: sharing the road with distracted, terrible human drivers. But you
Speaker 3: think about how this technology will actually change the world,
Speaker 3: because what if a vast portion of the population did
Speaker 3: not need to own a car? And you've got to
Speaker 3: imagine right now these things. It's not the cheapest form
Speaker 3: of travel, but every form of travel is expensive. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, liftin ubers are through the roof way mos
Speaker 3: are also not cheap. But if we got to a
Speaker 3: point where they were very cheap and they were very affordable,
Speaker 3: and you just had a roaming fleet of autonomous vehicles
Speaker 3: that can be picking you up and dropping you off,
Speaker 3: it's just kind of a beautiful thing. It could change
Speaker 3: all kinds of things. I know how much developer people
Speaker 3: love this idea because if not everyone needs to own
Speaker 3: a car, then that means they don't need to build
Speaker 3: parking spaces when they're building apartment buildings. It can be
Speaker 3: a huge game changer. Now, these things aren't without their problems.
Speaker 3: There's all the issues of the power outages that we've
Speaker 3: seen where if you don't know that story the big
Speaker 3: PG and E power outage in December in San Francisco,
Speaker 3: the reason the waymos all got stranded was because the
Speaker 3: internet got cut off. And there's a regulation that says
Speaker 3: that the Waymos cannot operate in California unless they're connected
Speaker 3: to the internet. So if the internet connection gets severed
Speaker 3: because of PG and E power outage, then these things
Speaker 3: don't know what to do, even though they have the
Speaker 3: technology to find a place to pull over. So that
Speaker 3: might be one of the situations where we need to
Speaker 3: rethink that regulation. And there have been incidents, especially as
Speaker 3: they're now expanding to freeways, where it doesn't really understand
Speaker 3: what to do during a construction zone.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: And there's that story, that horrific story of the guy
Speaker 3: in San Francisco that the WEIMO wouldn't speed away when
Speaker 3: the vehicle was being assaulted upon. We got to figure
Speaker 3: that one out too, But overall, we know how dangerous
Speaker 3: freeway driving is. I honestly, as much as I hate
Speaker 3: sitting on the four or five every day, I should
Speaker 3: consider myself lucky that most of the times when I'm
Speaker 3: on that freeway, I'm going like ten to fifteen miles
Speaker 3: an hour. Because what do you hear on this radio
Speaker 3: station every single fifteen minutes. You hear of car accidents
Speaker 3: where people get hurt. You hear of car accidents where
Speaker 3: people get killed. Driving in this town is dangerous. It
Speaker 3: always is and it always will be, and it is
Speaker 3: why the goal of my you know, it's funny, I
Speaker 3: have accomplished a lot of the dreams that I set
Speaker 3: out to have in you know, twenty years of this
Speaker 3: radio industry. So as I start to map out what
Speaker 3: are my dreams for the next twenty years, Like what
Speaker 3: do I really want out of life?
Speaker 2: I'm not going to have a family.
Speaker 3: I really love to travel and I want to be
Speaker 3: able to do more of that. But for me, like
Speaker 3: my life goals to be in a car almost never,
Speaker 3: and that means not two hours every single day, Like,
Speaker 3: do you understand the equality of life improvement that I
Speaker 3: have had in this last week.
Speaker 2: Instead of sitting.
Speaker 3: On that freeway, I have two more hours every single
Speaker 3: day to.
Speaker 2: Enjoy myself.
Speaker 3: And you know, if I was home and I was
Speaker 3: sitting in the valley, I'd probably just be sitting on
Speaker 3: the couch playing my Nintendo Switch too. But because I'm
Speaker 3: in a cool city and I'm exploring, I'm wandering, I'm
Speaker 3: just I'm having the best time and having those extra
Speaker 3: two hours every single day. So, like, my personal life
Speaker 3: goals is to drive as little as possible, live in
Speaker 3: places where I don't have to worry about that, And
Speaker 3: I think Weaimo is a great addition to all of that,
Speaker 3: because if I do need a car, I really like
Speaker 3: that it's something that's better at driving than me, because
Speaker 3: I know from my experience the Weaimo is a better
Speaker 3: driver than me. It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 3: on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. It's the News Blitz
Speaker 3: with Randy Wang on Talk radio seven ninety KABC. One
Speaker 3: of the silver linings of the cyclosporiasis outbreak that everyone
Speaker 3: is freaking out about is it is changing people's thinking
Speaker 3: about where they're getting their produce, because even though we
Speaker 3: currently don't know, because the FDA screwed up and had
Speaker 3: a false positive, we thought it was the lettuce that
Speaker 3: was being sent to Taco Bell from Taylor Farms from
Speaker 3: a farm in Mexico. Apparently now that's not the case.
Speaker 3: But one of the things that apparently we are starting
Speaker 3: to see a spike in is more people deciding to
Speaker 3: take a look at their local farmers' markets for picking
Speaker 3: up fresh produce. Although apparently still nobody's buying that lettuce either.
Speaker 3: It's real hard if you're the lettuce guy, especially like
Speaker 3: the pre bagged lettuce guy, you're probably having a very
Speaker 3: rough season. But I will say, for as much as
Speaker 3: I like to knock on California, in southern California, I'm
Speaker 3: a grass's greener person. I need to be in different places.
Speaker 3: One of the things that I'm very fortunate for and
Speaker 3: one of the things I'm very grateful for, and one
Speaker 3: of the things that I love about the state of
Speaker 3: California and southern California is that we have the best
Speaker 3: farmers markets because well we have a lot of the farms,
Speaker 3: so much incredible produce is grown every single day in
Speaker 3: the state of California. And you know, I'm lucky enough
Speaker 3: that I have a great farmer's market every Sunday in
Speaker 3: my neighborhood, and you will get by far the best
Speaker 3: tasting tomatoes, the best tasting berries. There's people that do eggs.
Speaker 3: It is a very beautiful community building thing that I
Speaker 3: really wish we would incentivize more. And by the way,
Speaker 3: there should really be public awareness for all the people
Speaker 3: that are on Snap or CalFresh EBT.
Speaker 2: I don't know how widely.
Speaker 3: It is known that you can use those benefits at
Speaker 3: a farmer's market, and we should be doubling and tripling
Speaker 3: down on that. I think we should be so encouraging that,
Speaker 3: and we should not let you use those things at Walmart.
Speaker 2: We should not allow here's my new theory.
Speaker 3: If you are an employer that pays people so little
Speaker 3: that they're on food stamps, you as a company Walmart
Speaker 3: cannot accept those food stamps because that is a triple
Speaker 3: dip subsidy. I think, so if we're going to subsidize
Speaker 3: somebody with food stamps, it should be the farmer's markets,
Speaker 3: and so we should be making that easier. But another thing,
Speaker 3: and this is on just the whole way that farmers
Speaker 3: markets operate, and it needs to be uniform if you
Speaker 3: want me to be a regular farmer's market person again,
Speaker 3: because I currently am not. I currently do most of
Speaker 3: my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, in a little at Ralph's.
Speaker 2: And while I love my local.
Speaker 3: Farmers market, I don't go as much these days, and
Speaker 3: it's because a lot of the farmer's market stands in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six are not accepting credit cards. There are
Speaker 3: a few things that I am just I'm a millennial kid,
Speaker 3: and you're not gonna change me. I do not understand
Speaker 3: the mail. I do not send letters. I don't like
Speaker 3: the mail. One of the things that frustrates me more
Speaker 3: than anything else is the stack of junk that comes
Speaker 3: into my mailbox every single day. I hate it. I
Speaker 3: also hate carrying cash. I don't like it, and I'm
Speaker 3: not a fan of having to go to an ATM
Speaker 3: or go to Ralphs and then get the cash and
Speaker 3: have to pay the fee to then have cash so
Speaker 3: I can go to the farmer's market. Right now, There's
Speaker 3: only one instance in my life where I need cash,
Speaker 3: and that is to tip the parking lot guy at
Speaker 3: the Pantagious Theater.
Speaker 2: But I don't like having.
Speaker 3: Cash, and the best farmers market stand, the one that
Speaker 3: every body goes to at the Encino farmers Market, is
Speaker 3: the John Gibbons Farm out of Santa Barbara County. The
Speaker 3: best produce you'll ever have, but they only accept cash
Speaker 3: and I could get over that. But I'm sure you
Speaker 3: know where I'm going with this. I have an addiction
Speaker 3: to credit card points. After being able to accumulate enough
Speaker 3: points to take a free European vacation where my wife
Speaker 3: and I flew business class to Dublin and flew home
Speaker 3: business class from Madrid. Every hotels day was paid for
Speaker 3: with points. The best vacation I ever took in my life,
Speaker 3: and outside of food and drink, it was all free.
Speaker 3: Because I maximize my credit card points. I've got my
Speaker 3: American Express Gold which gives me four X points on
Speaker 3: all supermarket purchases. If I had a way to earn
Speaker 3: credit card points while supporting my local farmers' markets, I would.
Speaker 2: Take advantage of that every single day.
Speaker 3: Because while I love the fresh produce, I happen to
Speaker 3: think that the produce at Trader Joe's is great and
Speaker 3: very very very reasonably priced. But I always find myself
Speaker 3: working towards that goal. Like I said, my life priorities
Speaker 3: are more travel doing things like this, working from Toronto
Speaker 3: for a week. Although I pay for these flights, but
Speaker 3: that's because I'm saving all the points for a nice
Speaker 3: business class flight for maybe a trip this winter. But
Speaker 3: in order to do that, I try to make sure
Speaker 3: that I'm not spending any money that I'm not accumulating
Speaker 3: points for. That's just that's one of my goals and
Speaker 3: it keeps me focused. So maybe my priority should be
Speaker 3: to support the local farmers market instead. But I really
Speaker 3: like my European vacations, and I see on my credit
Speaker 3: card bills how much I spend on groceries, and it
Speaker 3: would drive me crazy knowing how much untapped potential that
Speaker 3: there is because I am not using my credit card
Speaker 3: if I need to go get one hundred dollars in
Speaker 3: cash to go to the farmer's market. But I like
Speaker 3: the people are exploring their farmers markets. Like I said,
Speaker 3: we have great produce. It's a great community building event
Speaker 3: just across the board. Let's all work to wards making
Speaker 3: sure that people on food stamps can use farmers' markets,
Speaker 3: and that we make people more aware that that is
Speaker 3: a thing. Disincentivize the big employers that pay people so
Speaker 3: little that they're on food stamps from profiting off of
Speaker 3: food stamps.
Speaker 2: Also, I think.
Speaker 3: We're at a point the food stamps should not be
Speaker 3: used at McDonald's, The food stamp should not be used
Speaker 3: at Pizza Hut. If we are paying for somebody to eat,
Speaker 3: it should be with the healthiest food is possible, because
Speaker 3: if they cannot afford food and they're on food stamps,
Speaker 3: they're probably also on medical and I want to make
Speaker 3: sure that that person doesn't get diabetes from the food that.
Speaker 2: I am paying for. But that's just my little idea.
Speaker 3: You know, it has been an incredible week broadcasting from
Speaker 3: the residence in in downtown Toronto. I have had so
Speaker 3: much fun being here. I walked five miles this morning.
Speaker 3: The weather was perfect. I thought it was gonna be
Speaker 3: really hot and muggy. The weather's been gorgeous this week.
Speaker 3: I just sometimes I get really lucky with weather, and
Speaker 3: it is beautiful being in a place that you know
Speaker 3: you're on the water because you're on Lake Ontario, so
Speaker 3: you can go south and you can walk along the water.
Speaker 3: I did that for two or three miles this morning.
Speaker 3: You can go into the city centers look at the
Speaker 3: impressive skyline. Toronto is such a modern city because so
Speaker 3: many of the streets, so many of the buildings, look
Speaker 3: so new. There definitely are historic districts, and I walked
Speaker 3: through the Distillery District, which is, you know, lots more
Speaker 3: brick and cobblestone. But it's been a really fun time
Speaker 3: and I've had a lot of fun exploring the food
Speaker 3: scene of Toronto. I have had more than my fair
Speaker 3: share of poutine. But also this morning, I was just
Speaker 3: wandering around, I realized I was close to the Saint
Speaker 3: Lawrence Market, so I popped into the Carousel Bakery and
Speaker 3: I got me another pe meal bacon sandwich. I never
Speaker 3: even knew pea meal was a thing, but it's a
Speaker 3: pea meal crusted, you know, ham sandwich.
Speaker 2: The bacon ham.
Speaker 3: It's cooked and then you put a little mustard or
Speaker 3: hot sauce on the kaiser rull. It is such good
Speaker 3: eating and I'm having a great time. Also, love Canadian beers.
Speaker 3: I don't know why Canadian beers are excellent. Thank you
Speaker 3: all so much for being part of his show. I'll
Speaker 3: be back in Los Angeles next week unless my flight
Speaker 3: gets really delayed. Have a wonderful weekend, everybody. It's the
Speaker 3: News Blitz with Randy wang KABC