1
00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:00,840
Speaker 1: Can't.

2
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,600
Speaker 2: I am six forty you're listening to the John Cobel

3
00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,800
Speaker 2: podcast on the iHeartRadio app. It's good you're here. We

4
00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:10,640
Speaker 2: got to get right to it. There's so much, so

5
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:13,440
Speaker 2: much to share. We're on every day from three till six.

6
00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,600
Speaker 2: Now three until six. We're back in our old time slot.

7
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:19,640
Speaker 2: Conways on from six to ten. And if you miss anything,

8
00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,639
Speaker 2: you go to the podcast. We released that shortly after

9
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,000
Speaker 2: six o'clock on the iHeartRadio app and it's just like

10
00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:28,320
Speaker 2: the radio show and you can pick up on whatever

11
00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:33,440
Speaker 2: you missed. Yesterday, the big story was the Los Angeles

12
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:38,800
Speaker 2: Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvallo got raided at his

13
00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:42,120
Speaker 2: home in San Pedro and also at his office in

14
00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:47,519
Speaker 2: downtown Los Angeles. He's had a shady past, but he

15
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,959
Speaker 2: was hired anyway, and now the idiots who hired him,

16
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:55,440
Speaker 2: the LA School Board, is having an emergency meeting this

17
00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 2: afternoon to figure out what to do. It seems like

18
00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 2: Jennifer Van laur who is the managing editor of the

19
00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:08,720
Speaker 2: RedState dot com, and she has had more detail than

20
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,560
Speaker 2: anybody in fleshing out this story. So we're going to

21
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,720
Speaker 2: go to Jennifer right now. And see why he was

22
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:21,119
Speaker 2: likely rated and what his legal future is. Jennifer, how are.

23
00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:23,880
Speaker 3: You pretty good? How about you good?

24
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,440
Speaker 2: I have been reading all your posts at RedState dot

25
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,920
Speaker 2: com and the tweets you're sending out on x. It's

26
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,440
Speaker 2: quite a story you're building. Tell us, tell everybody what

27
00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 2: you know.

28
00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:37,760
Speaker 3: Wow, it's quite a mess. There are a few different

29
00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 3: angles of it. So we know that Carbo's home was

30
00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:43,720
Speaker 3: raided and his office and then the home of this

31
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,680
Speaker 3: Deborah Kerr in Florida, who has known Carvalho for over

32
00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:52,720
Speaker 3: fifteen years and worked with him on various initiatives in Miami.

33
00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,720
Speaker 3: So she was the woman who basically brought this AI

34
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,200
Speaker 3: chatbot contract to lausd her Son is listed as the

35
00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 3: person who pitched it to Carbajo, but she claims that

36
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,600
Speaker 3: she has owed six hundred and thirty thousand dollars in

37
00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 3: commission for that sale.

38
00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,560
Speaker 4: This is an AI chatbot, yes, and.

39
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:15,480
Speaker 3: It was named ED Thanks for education?

40
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:15,960
Speaker 2: Get it?

41
00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:17,600
Speaker 4: Oh?

42
00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw that yesterday. I was going why would

43
00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:23,640
Speaker 2: they name this ED? So ED the chatbot? They paid

44
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,840
Speaker 2: six million dollars for this thing, all right? So how

45
00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:29,720
Speaker 2: has this gone wrong?

46
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,960
Speaker 3: A couple of ways. So, first, it was doing things

47
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,240
Speaker 3: like sending all of the students protected information to servers

48
00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,519
Speaker 3: all around the world, even though there are data policies

49
00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:42,960
Speaker 3: that it's supposed to all stay in the United States.

50
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:45,480
Speaker 3: And part of the reason it was doing that it

51
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:47,799
Speaker 3: was really weirdly set up. So say you're a mom

52
00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,399
Speaker 3: and you have three kids in LAUSD and you want

53
00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,359
Speaker 3: ed to tell you their class schedule. Well, this chatbot

54
00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:59,560
Speaker 3: would search all of your kids info their entire files

55
00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,120
Speaker 3: at la USD to give you the information on that

56
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,200
Speaker 3: one kid schedule. So if you think about that, all

57
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:08,240
Speaker 3: of that information going to all these servers are all

58
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:12,720
Speaker 3: around the world and not very good privacy and security practices.

59
00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,320
Speaker 3: It's just the hackers haven for all this information. So

60
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:19,960
Speaker 3: that was one problem. Then the other problem is the

61
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:24,360
Speaker 3: company went bankrupt before the thing was fully launched to

62
00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:25,919
Speaker 3: all of LAUSD.

63
00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 4: And so the six million went down the tubes.

64
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,680
Speaker 3: Well three million of it was paid, and then of

65
00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,280
Speaker 3: course they didn't pay more. But the thing was like,

66
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,880
Speaker 3: this company was not in the business of developing AI

67
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,800
Speaker 3: chat bots. They had like a text response system that

68
00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,360
Speaker 3: would send parents text if their kids had excessive absences

69
00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,440
Speaker 3: and that kind of thing, But that's far different than

70
00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,440
Speaker 3: an AI chatbot that has access to over five hundred

71
00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:55,440
Speaker 3: thousand students files and all of the school schedules and

72
00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 3: all of that information. And so someone and I think

73
00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,400
Speaker 3: the FBI is probably looking into how this came about.

74
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,680
Speaker 3: Someone came up with the great idea that this company

75
00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:10,720
Speaker 3: named all here would develop this chatbot for LAUSD from scratch,

76
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,720
Speaker 3: and then if other school systems decided to use it

77
00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 3: after that, then LAUSD would basically get royalties, kickbacks, however

78
00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:21,800
Speaker 3: you want to describe it, on everything else that these

79
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,040
Speaker 3: other schools did. So Carvajo went around the country with

80
00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:29,599
Speaker 3: Joanna Smith Griffin, who was the CEO that bankrupted the

81
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:34,480
Speaker 3: company promoting it, and then she gets indicted for securities fraud,

82
00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:39,760
Speaker 3: wire fraud, and identity theft for basically bilking investors at

83
00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:42,440
Speaker 3: about ten to twelve million dollars.

84
00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,479
Speaker 2: Ten to twelve million dollars she'd built for investors. She

85
00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:48,640
Speaker 2: didn't come through with all the promises she was.

86
00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,719
Speaker 3: Claiming, no she and then the identity theft part is

87
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,839
Speaker 3: when she impersonated when investors started or potential investors started

88
00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,840
Speaker 3: asking questions saying, these numbers you're giving me in the

89
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,960
Speaker 3: incitation don't add up. He created a whole new email

90
00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,920
Speaker 3: address and identity for some kind of financial consultant, held

91
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,520
Speaker 3: herself out as a financial consultant for the company to

92
00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,800
Speaker 3: these investors, to lie and to say that they had

93
00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,839
Speaker 3: more contracts than they had and lie about their revenue.

94
00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:22,760
Speaker 2: And Carvallo was the public face selling this. You write

95
00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,200
Speaker 2: that he gave a twenty minute speech promoting this technology

96
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 2: at Arizona State University Global Silicon Valley Summit back in

97
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,760
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, So that was his role in this scheme.

98
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,479
Speaker 3: Yes, and he was very I mean I watched about

99
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,159
Speaker 3: ten minutes of it and I couldn't stomach anymore. But

100
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,600
Speaker 3: he was very flowery about how this was going to

101
00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,440
Speaker 3: help all of these underserved students, and especially students who

102
00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,279
Speaker 3: didn't speak English, their family didn't speak English, and they're

103
00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,360
Speaker 3: just going to be this game changer. And that's great

104
00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:57,680
Speaker 3: that it was really going to help. But he have

105
00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:01,000
Speaker 3: the ulterior motive of wanting to that to help so

106
00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:05,400
Speaker 3: that LAUSD could get the kickbacks, which I don't necessarily

107
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,760
Speaker 3: have a problem with, but it seems they might be

108
00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:11,680
Speaker 3: looking at him maybe getting some of these kickbacks. And

109
00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,560
Speaker 3: also his role if he knew that this company when

110
00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,200
Speaker 3: he gave that presentation, they were already laying off staff

111
00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,880
Speaker 3: because the company was going down, all right, And if

112
00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:24,240
Speaker 3: he was talking about this and basically thoft pitching it

113
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 3: to potential investors and knew that, you know, he could

114
00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:29,880
Speaker 3: get in trouble too.

115
00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:33,839
Speaker 2: Right, And when you talk about kickbacks, you're talking about

116
00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:37,840
Speaker 2: he's getting some of the money that investors had put

117
00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:40,000
Speaker 2: in and he'd.

118
00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,320
Speaker 3: Get some Well that's the theory. We don't have any

119
00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:43,720
Speaker 3: confirmation of that yet.

120
00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:44,279
Speaker 4: Yeah.

121
00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:46,359
Speaker 2: Well, I was going to ask you what is the

122
00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:51,120
Speaker 2: potential crime that they're looking into. Have you heard or

123
00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,160
Speaker 2: is there something obvious here well having to.

124
00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,240
Speaker 3: Do with with fraud and that, and from what my

125
00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:02,040
Speaker 3: reading of about twenty different articles about the bankruptcy last night,

126
00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,360
Speaker 3: that it could possibly have to do with a plot

127
00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:11,320
Speaker 3: to basically bring this transaction to LAUSC that he knew

128
00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:16,320
Speaker 3: that the company wasn't capable of executing on and maybe

129
00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:18,320
Speaker 3: a little bit of pay to play going on there

130
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:20,040
Speaker 3: right now.

131
00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,720
Speaker 2: You also found out that he and his wife own

132
00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,440
Speaker 2: a lot of real estate. They have many homes. Talk

133
00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:27,080
Speaker 2: about that.

134
00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:30,280
Speaker 3: Part they do. They have five homes in Miami, two

135
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:34,120
Speaker 3: of them are luxury condominiums, right on the water there

136
00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,480
Speaker 3: one is a penthouse, then a two point five or

137
00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,160
Speaker 3: two point six million dollar home in Miami Shores. Then

138
00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:43,960
Speaker 3: of course they're one point four I believe one point

139
00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,800
Speaker 3: five million dollar house in San Pedro. But I do

140
00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:49,520
Speaker 3: have to say that on the one of them in Miami,

141
00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,440
Speaker 3: they got about a million dollars of appreciation during COVID

142
00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,320
Speaker 3: when all of the people from California moved to Florida

143
00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:59,600
Speaker 3: and drove up the prices there. But that's still a

144
00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,160
Speaker 3: lot of real estate to have. It's about six point

145
00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,200
Speaker 3: three million dollars worth of real estate. And what he

146
00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,360
Speaker 3: was making in Miami was about three twenty five pay

147
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,320
Speaker 3: a year and it's four.

148
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:15,400
Speaker 2: Forty here right, all right, so this is all coming together.

149
00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:18,880
Speaker 2: So the name of the company is all here, and

150
00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:22,680
Speaker 2: the former CEO is Joanna Smith Griffin. She's being prosecuted

151
00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,920
Speaker 2: for securities fraud, wirefraud, identity theft, as you said, And

152
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,280
Speaker 2: she had Carvallo acting as the face of it, appearing

153
00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:36,920
Speaker 2: publicly trying to get investors to throw in millions of dollars,

154
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,559
Speaker 2: which they did, about ten million dollars in funds. And

155
00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:46,199
Speaker 2: this this chatbot didn't even work very well and then

156
00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:50,480
Speaker 2: they were using it to send students private information that

157
00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:54,160
Speaker 2: was ending up on servers all around the world, right,

158
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:55,080
Speaker 2: and that.

159
00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:59,160
Speaker 3: Could potentially be a very big problem with privacy laws

160
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,760
Speaker 3: in the state. I've heard rumblings that some of the

161
00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,720
Speaker 3: legislaters in Sacramento are wanting to look into how that's happened,

162
00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,600
Speaker 3: because of course we don't want children's information all around

163
00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:09,120
Speaker 3: the globe.

164
00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 4: Right.

165
00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:15,840
Speaker 2: So now the superintendent, well, I mean his job is

166
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:18,480
Speaker 2: up in the air right now because the board is

167
00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:21,760
Speaker 2: having an emergency meeting. Do you hear what's likely to

168
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,000
Speaker 2: happen on that front? It just seems like he'd have

169
00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,880
Speaker 2: to be taking a temporary leave of absence.

170
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would expect that at least that's going to happen.

171
00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,880
Speaker 3: It was really telling when this raid happened yesterday that

172
00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:38,840
Speaker 3: LAUSC didn't just come out slamming the federal agents because

173
00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:40,600
Speaker 3: there was a lot of people who just thought that

174
00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,400
Speaker 3: it was having to do with immigration or because Carvalho

175
00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:48,240
Speaker 3: has been resisting the immigration enforcement and they just came

176
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:50,079
Speaker 3: right out and said, oh, we don't know what's really

177
00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,920
Speaker 3: going on, but we're cooperating. So the fact that they

178
00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:55,120
Speaker 3: didn't hit back, I think says a lot.

179
00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:58,840
Speaker 2: All right, well, Jennifer, great work that you've done in

180
00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:02,200
Speaker 2: the last twenty four hours. Thank you, Thank you very

181
00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:05,720
Speaker 2: much for coming on, and we'll talk again as this develops. Great,

182
00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,960
Speaker 2: all right, Jennifer van Laher. She's the managing editor for

183
00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,079
Speaker 2: RedState dot com and you just heard her layout. It's

184
00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:15,360
Speaker 2: it's around. The scandal is about a chatbot named ed

185
00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:21,240
Speaker 2: ed the chatbot and a lot of fraud connected to ed,

186
00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,520
Speaker 2: and it's already led to a felony prosecution for the

187
00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:29,560
Speaker 2: CEO of the company that created ed. All here and

188
00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,439
Speaker 2: uh Carvallo is deeply involved in the company as well.

189
00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:34,800
Speaker 2: We've got more about this matter coming up.

190
00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:39,840
Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM

191
00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:40,640
Speaker 5: six forty.

192
00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:45,720
Speaker 2: John Cobelt's show, and coming up after three thirty, we're

193
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,400
Speaker 2: gonna have to Tom Lackey on. He's a Republican assemblyman

194
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:52,320
Speaker 2: out of Palmdale, and the Republicans are presenting an idea

195
00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:55,760
Speaker 2: that one of the big the biggest gas texts gets

196
00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:02,400
Speaker 2: suspended for a year because as of today, we are

197
00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:07,400
Speaker 2: paying four sixty four a gallon four sixty four a gallon,

198
00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,120
Speaker 2: and the average across the country is two ninety eight,

199
00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:13,880
Speaker 2: and we have a whopper of a basic gas tax

200
00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,400
Speaker 2: of seventy one cents a gallon, and the Republicans are saying,

201
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,360
Speaker 2: how about a break for a year, because that that

202
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 2: comes out, you know, about seven hundred dollars a year

203
00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:30,079
Speaker 2: for an average, an average driver and of course people

204
00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,760
Speaker 2: who have long drives and a lot too. Here in

205
00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:36,520
Speaker 2: California it's you know, over one thousand dollars. So how

206
00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:38,880
Speaker 2: about a tax break? Why are we paying for sixty four?

207
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,960
Speaker 2: And in Oklahoma they're paying two dollars and forty cents

208
00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:45,720
Speaker 2: and the average is two eighty nine. And there's thirty

209
00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:49,640
Speaker 2: eight states, thirty eight states paying under three dollars right now.

210
00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:53,320
Speaker 2: So we're going to talk with Tom Lackey about that

211
00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,360
Speaker 2: coming up, Jeff to follow up at Alberto Carvallo. We

212
00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,600
Speaker 2: just had Jennifer Van Laurn and he she is the

213
00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,120
Speaker 2: managing editor of RedState dot com and she's done a

214
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,920
Speaker 2: tremendous amount of research, getting a lot of detail that

215
00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 2: I haven't seen anywhere else. You know, there's well sedge

216
00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:16,880
Speaker 2: of school district is a wash in money. You may

217
00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:21,000
Speaker 2: hear teachers complaining that they're not paid enough, and you

218
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,720
Speaker 2: hear the school board whining that they don't have enough

219
00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,040
Speaker 2: revenue to cover the teacher demands. They're all full of it.

220
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,160
Speaker 2: The teachers are getting paid very well, especially since test

221
00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:37,800
Speaker 2: scores are abysmal or horrific. Most kids they leave high

222
00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,920
Speaker 2: school and they do not meet the proficiency standard for

223
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,320
Speaker 2: reading and about two thirds don't meet the proficiency standard

224
00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,600
Speaker 2: for math. Okay, so the product coming out of LA

225
00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:57,120
Speaker 2: Public schools, it stinks. The educational product stinks. The teachers

226
00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,199
Speaker 2: are well paid by any measure, and they're a wash

227
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:05,240
Speaker 2: in money at LAUSD. And I went looking today. Do

228
00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,160
Speaker 2: you know, do you know what peak enrollment was for

229
00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:10,720
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles School District?

230
00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:12,760
Speaker 4: Listen to this.

231
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:22,040
Speaker 2: In two thousand and five, In two thousand and four,

232
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:27,160
Speaker 2: let's say peak enrollment seven hundred and fifty thousand kids,

233
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 2: seven hundred and fifty thousand in two thousand and four.

234
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,559
Speaker 2: You don't know what it is today, three hundred and

235
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:38,680
Speaker 2: ninety thousand. We went from seven hundred and fifty thousand

236
00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,920
Speaker 2: to three hundred and ninety thousand. That's a huge drop

237
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:46,240
Speaker 2: because much of the public gave up on sending their

238
00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:51,560
Speaker 2: kids to LA Public schools because they stink, and the

239
00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:57,040
Speaker 2: proof is in the test scores. And then I thought, well, okay,

240
00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:02,880
Speaker 2: that's the enrollment. It's down almost by fifty percent. Right,

241
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:09,640
Speaker 2: that's almost a fifty percent drop. What's their budget? Their

242
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:14,520
Speaker 2: budget in let's go back ten years to twenty fifteen

243
00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:23,760
Speaker 2: six billion dollars. Now it's eighteen billion, So they have

244
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,080
Speaker 2: three times as much money in the last ten years

245
00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 2: with only half the students from twenty years ago. How

246
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:37,800
Speaker 2: does that work? How do you end up with triple

247
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,440
Speaker 2: the budget when you have half the students? What do

248
00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,840
Speaker 2: you think is going on? It's like the homeless money.

249
00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,360
Speaker 2: How do you end up with more money after spending

250
00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:51,400
Speaker 2: How do you end up with more homeless after getting

251
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,480
Speaker 2: tens of billions of dollars.

252
00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,720
Speaker 4: In homeless money? What happened? Oh? It was stolen.

253
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,840
Speaker 2: So either there's a lot lot of school money being

254
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:05,080
Speaker 2: stolen at the Los Angeles Unified School District, and I'm

255
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,920
Speaker 2: sure there is because this is inexplicable. You got half

256
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 2: the students, she got triple the budget. The test score stink.

257
00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:15,200
Speaker 1: Well.

258
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,680
Speaker 2: One thing is when you have that much money gushing around,

259
00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:21,920
Speaker 2: people have it. They want to spend it on something.

260
00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,320
Speaker 2: So it looks like, oh, Berto Carvallo decided he was

261
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:28,880
Speaker 2: going to blow six million dollars on ed the chatbot,

262
00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:33,840
Speaker 2: and he found a company that he could hook up

263
00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:40,120
Speaker 2: with called all Here. The CEO Joanna Smith Griffin. Well,

264
00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:45,720
Speaker 2: he and Joanna raised ten million dollars in funds from investors.

265
00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:49,080
Speaker 2: He was doing a lot of the cheerleading. She's now

266
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,520
Speaker 2: being prosecuted for securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity

267
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:57,160
Speaker 2: theft because the product ever worked. She whipped up all

268
00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:02,640
Speaker 2: this enthusiasm, got all this money, and where'd all the

269
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,760
Speaker 2: money go? And Carvallo is a part of this. And

270
00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,440
Speaker 2: the FBI rated the Florida home of Deborah Kerr. She

271
00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:16,800
Speaker 2: is a salesperson connected to Carvallo. She's the one who

272
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,960
Speaker 2: helped land the six million dollar LA contract for the

273
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 2: company All Here.

274
00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:25,800
Speaker 4: So that's how all stitches together. They're gushing money.

275
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:27,960
Speaker 2: They have half the students they used to, They got

276
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:32,480
Speaker 2: at least triple a budget. Everybody screams poverty to the

277
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,320
Speaker 2: public who most people don't know any better, and they're

278
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:39,840
Speaker 2: blowing money on side deals here and the chatbot. This

279
00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:41,680
Speaker 2: is going to be a good one, all right. When

280
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,160
Speaker 2: we come back, Tom Lackey will be on with us.

281
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,080
Speaker 2: Tom Lackey's Republican Assemblyman. Why the hell's the rest of

282
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,200
Speaker 2: the country paying on average two ninety eight a gallon

283
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,720
Speaker 2: and we're paying four to sixty four a gallon. Well,

284
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,480
Speaker 2: a lot of the story is our gas taxes. The

285
00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:59,920
Speaker 2: biggest gas tax seventy one cents a gallon, the Republican Assement.

286
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,840
Speaker 2: We want to repeal it for a year. Give everybody

287
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:05,280
Speaker 2: a break. We'll talk to Tom Lackey.

288
00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:05,600
Speaker 4: Next.

289
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM

290
00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:11,560
Speaker 5: six forty.

291
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:15,920
Speaker 2: John Cobelt's Show. We're on every day from three until six,

292
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:19,160
Speaker 2: and then after six o'clock we have the podcast John

293
00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:21,680
Speaker 2: Cobel's Show on demand. It's same as the radio show,

294
00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:25,000
Speaker 2: and you could listen to whatever you missed. Often, I

295
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:30,080
Speaker 2: give the gas price update because I don't know what's

296
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:32,840
Speaker 2: wrong with people in California. They seem to be unaware

297
00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:37,200
Speaker 2: that we stand by ourselves when it comes to insane

298
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:41,440
Speaker 2: gas prices. Right now, the national average is two dollars

299
00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:46,640
Speaker 2: and ninety eight cents, and Oklahoma has the lowest prices

300
00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:50,240
Speaker 2: at two forty three. In fact, there's thirty eight states

301
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:53,480
Speaker 2: that are below three bucks a gallon thirty eight and

302
00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:57,280
Speaker 2: then the most expensive state and by a good amount

303
00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:03,000
Speaker 2: California at four sixty three. Much of the difference is taxes.

304
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:07,520
Speaker 2: And now Republican lawmakers I've written a bill that would

305
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:12,160
Speaker 2: suspend the main tax sixty one cents a gallon at

306
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,639
Speaker 2: the pump, and they're offering this up for a vote.

307
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,400
Speaker 2: And we're going to talk to Tom Lackey, Republican Assemblymen

308
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:20,800
Speaker 2: at a Palmdale. He's one of the big supporters. Tom.

309
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:23,440
Speaker 4: How are you hey, I'm doing great.

310
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 1: How are you, sir?

311
00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,040
Speaker 2: I'm good. Good to have you back on the show.

312
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 2: First thing is go through what this bill proposes.

313
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,760
Speaker 1: Okay, well, this is a very pragmatic bill that I

314
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:40,280
Speaker 1: think most your listeners would be excited to hear. As

315
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,720
Speaker 1: you indicated, currently we pay about seventy one cents a

316
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:49,880
Speaker 1: California per gallon one, yeah, about seventy one cents. That's

317
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,679
Speaker 1: what this bill addresses, that seventy one cents per gallon.

318
00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:00,960
Speaker 1: And what the proposal brings forward is that we would

319
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 1: pause this gas tax for one year, and in that savings,

320
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: we would make sure that the middlemen can't keep the savings. Refineries,

321
00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:15,040
Speaker 1: distributors or gas stations would be legally required to pass

322
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:18,119
Speaker 1: the full tax savings down to the drivers at the pump.

323
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:22,639
Speaker 1: Receives from the receipts that you would get at the

324
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 1: pump would show that savings, and the gas stations would

325
00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:30,120
Speaker 1: have to print your receipt on how much you'd been charged,

326
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,760
Speaker 1: so you could clearly see and trust that it's actually happening.

327
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,840
Speaker 1: And it's a very pragmatic thing that needs to happen

328
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:45,560
Speaker 1: because families are really struggling with this additional cost, and

329
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,000
Speaker 1: they're not debating policy, they're deciding whether to fill the

330
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,439
Speaker 1: tank or fill the fridge, and it's a real serious difficulty.

331
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,600
Speaker 2: Right off the top, you'd be saving people about fourteen

332
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 2: dollars on a tank of gas, averaging you know, twenty

333
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,040
Speaker 2: gallon tank and cars and people use about a tank

334
00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,080
Speaker 2: of gas a week, so you're you're talking about fourteen

335
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:11,480
Speaker 2: dollars saved every week, fifty two weeks a year. That's

336
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 2: over seven hundred dollars of a tax break, which which

337
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:17,560
Speaker 2: will go a long way for a lot of families.

338
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:22,520
Speaker 1: Well even some of the people where I represent, they

339
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 1: drive even further than that, and they fill up even

340
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,080
Speaker 1: more often than that, So it would be even a

341
00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,399
Speaker 1: greater savings, right, because the more well you want to

342
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 1: the further you have to drive.

343
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,960
Speaker 2: And I mean it's when I look at the list.

344
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 2: I mean I always go to the tripaa dot com site.

345
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 2: They have a state by state gas price chart, and

346
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,240
Speaker 2: I look at the vast majority of states, about three

347
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,880
Speaker 2: quarters of them gas starts with a two, and then

348
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 2: down at the bottom is California at four to sixty three.

349
00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:56,520
Speaker 2: And we're about twenty five cents more than Hawaii, which is,

350
00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 2: you know, thousands of miles out in the ocean, so

351
00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,480
Speaker 2: they've got very high transportation costs, and we still beat

352
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:03,200
Speaker 2: them by a quarter.

353
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,520
Speaker 4: And I'm just are people aware of this?

354
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,119
Speaker 2: Because I would think price is this high that would

355
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 2: cause a lot of people to run into the streets

356
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 2: and you would see a political earthquake.

357
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 4: Are they not aware of this?

358
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,720
Speaker 1: Well, they feel trapped because every trip to the funk

359
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:23,960
Speaker 1: feels like a penalty for going to work. And I

360
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: find it to be discouraging that we as legislators don't

361
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:32,560
Speaker 1: really address that in the way that it meaningfully deserves

362
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: to be addressed. And this is a very pragmatic approach

363
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 1: and it's experimental, so let's let's see whether the benefit

364
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:42,680
Speaker 1: weighs the cost.

365
00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 2: I'm this particular gas tax. It's the main gas tax.

366
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 2: I know, there are a lot of taxes that go

367
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:52,080
Speaker 2: into the price. You know, there's climate change taxes. So

368
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:54,680
Speaker 2: this this what is this money used for?

369
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,520
Speaker 4: If anything, it's for roads.

370
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:06,680
Speaker 1: It's primarily for road construction and maintenance and those kinds

371
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: of things. As you know, California believes, and haw's the

372
00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 1: perspective that road dieting is what we should do, and

373
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:19,119
Speaker 1: public transportation should be where we should be enhancing. But

374
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 1: when you live in a rural community, that's not an option.

375
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 1: So it's not what they're encouraging. Doesn't apply to rural communities,

376
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 1: and that's we're carrying the extra baggage for all the

377
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,080
Speaker 1: people in the urban environment.

378
00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:37,880
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you in Los Angeles, mass transit does

379
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 2: not work at all. I mean, I think ninety nine

380
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,960
Speaker 2: percent of the public that I'm aware of has to

381
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 2: take a car. I mean, I go from the West

382
00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 2: side of Los Angeles to Burbank back every day. It

383
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 2: is not possible to take mass transit between those two points.

384
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,200
Speaker 2: It just doesn't exist. Unless I wanted to spend four

385
00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,879
Speaker 2: hours taking three different buses, and I don't know how

386
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 2: that would even work impossible because it is so you know,

387
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,680
Speaker 2: everybody has to use the car around here. And as

388
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,520
Speaker 2: far as road construction and maintenance, I'll take you on

389
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 2: a drive like down Interstate five into downtown LA. It

390
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,560
Speaker 2: hasn't been done in decades. I don't know where the

391
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:23,360
Speaker 2: money's going, but the roads here are. I mean, Afghanistan

392
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 2: would be ashamed to have roads like we have in

393
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,840
Speaker 2: a lot of LA County.

394
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:31,479
Speaker 4: It's terrible.

395
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 1: I can tell you that I just recently made a

396
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:42,439
Speaker 1: trip to Florida and I compared the conditions of roadways there.

397
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:46,680
Speaker 1: They actually take it seriously there. It is very very

398
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 1: The roads were very nice, a lot, smoother lot, and

399
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 1: the weather's pretty much the same as what we have.

400
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,879
Speaker 1: And so I don't understand why our roads are so inferior,

401
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,879
Speaker 1: but they certainly are. I mean, considering all very obvious.

402
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,639
Speaker 2: Considering all the corruption that we're finding out in the state,

403
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 2: I wonder where all this gas tax money is going,

404
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,880
Speaker 2: because it's not going for the roads. Going by my eyesight,

405
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 2: I don't see it, and I suspect that there's a

406
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 2: lot of money being diverted to a lot of nonsense

407
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:19,440
Speaker 2: and a lot of criminal activity.

408
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: It's got to be that's clearly a point well taken

409
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:28,120
Speaker 1: that deserves to be researched. It really does. It deserves.

410
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,439
Speaker 1: People deserve to know when they're paying so much of

411
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: their paycheck for this expectation, is it really happening, Because

412
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It's not obvious to the driver. It's not

413
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 1: obvious to me, that's for sure.

414
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 2: All right, So kind of silly question. Are the Democrats

415
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 2: interested in this idea at all?

416
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:52,159
Speaker 1: Not not near enough of them. I'm hoping that we

417
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 1: can make the point. But if you don't bring it up,

418
00:24:57,160 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: it definitely isn't going to pass. So we at least

419
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:01,119
Speaker 1: have got to bring it up, start talking about it,

420
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: and have constituents called the representatives. Unfortunately, a lot of

421
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: the rural representatives are the people of my party, and

422
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: so the preaching of the choir.

423
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, you got to let people know, you

424
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,159
Speaker 2: got to let people know this is not going on

425
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 2: at all in the rest of the country. All forty

426
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 2: nine other states have lower taxes, and that even includes

427
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 2: because I got the whole list in front of me here,

428
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 2: what are considered left wing states like New Jersey is

429
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 2: two dollars and ninety two cents. New York is three

430
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 2: dollars right on the nose. Illinois is three to three.

431
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,800
Speaker 2: These are the most liberal states in the country outside

432
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 2: of California, and they're paying at three bucks.

433
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 4: A gallon or slightly below. So it's not a thing

434
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 4: where the world.

435
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: Right is Know what you said for sixty four, Yeah,

436
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 1: we're at.

437
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 4: For sixty four.

438
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,679
Speaker 2: Now how are we at for sixty four in the

439
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,720
Speaker 2: state of New York, you know, is at three bucks

440
00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 2: right on the nose.

441
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 4: It's just crazy.

442
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,360
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't smell right.

443
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 4: No, smells very bad.

444
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:11,119
Speaker 2: And you know, then you get you get to some

445
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 2: of the southern states and they're down in the two fifties,

446
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:18,800
Speaker 2: Louisiana and Mississippi and Tennessee and Arkansas all.

447
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,199
Speaker 4: The two fifties. Texas is a two sixty.

448
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 2: I mean, if people knew about this stuff, I'm convinced

449
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 2: nobody does. I might be the only one who looks

450
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 2: at the state by state price average every day.

451
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 4: Listen, I wish you had luck.

452
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 2: Tom Lackey, assemblyman up in Palmdale, Republican, thank you for

453
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:36,959
Speaker 2: writing this bill. And if you want to talk more

454
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:38,880
Speaker 2: about it on the air, just let us know, okay.

455
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: Well, in all fairness, it's actually the authors. Some of

456
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: them are Jeff Gonzales and it's Assembly Bill seventeen forty five.

457
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 1: If your people would like to follow up with them.

458
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 2: All right, Tom Lackey, thank you, all right, thank you,

459
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 2: all right, and we've got more coming up.

460
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:00,640
Speaker 5: You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI.

461
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 2: You follow us on social media at John Cobelt Radio,

462
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 2: at John Cobelt Radio and social media. And we passed

463
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 2: four thousand subscribers on YouTube, so Pilon, we put out

464
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 2: videos after every show YouTube dot com, slash at John

465
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 2: Coblt Show, YouTube dot com slash at John Cobelt Show

466
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,880
Speaker 2: and subscribe, and you've got a notification every time we

467
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 2: put up a new video. Like I said, we put

468
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 2: it up after most, if not all, the programs. Courser's

469
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 2: gonna have the news coming up in a few minutes,

470
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 2: and then after four o'clock we're gonna talk for a reporter.

471
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,399
Speaker 4: From the Hill. Because Hillary Clinton.

472
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 2: Had to testify under oath at a closed congressional hearing,

473
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:52,639
Speaker 2: which was suddenly stopped because one of the congress women

474
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 2: took a sneaky photo and put it out on the

475
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:02,680
Speaker 2: internet in showing Clinton testify, and that pissed her off

476
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 2: and things stopped. And Eric, I'm gonna send you a

477
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 2: clip I just found because Hillary abruptly ended a question

478
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: and answer with the press when she was asked about Epstein,

479
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,640
Speaker 2: And so we'll play that as well. It's highly entertaining.

480
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,199
Speaker 2: We just had Tom Lackey on. He's an assemblyman at

481
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: a Palmdale and a Republican, and the Republicans behind Jeff Gonzalez,

482
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 2: another assemblyman, have this radical idea that how about we

483
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 2: suspend the main gas tax for a year at seventy

484
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:37,440
Speaker 2: one cents a gallon because our gas prices have gone

485
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 2: up I think about forty five cents in the last month,

486
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 2: and the rest of the country it's gone up a dime.

487
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 2: And it's huge increases. And we've told you why, I

488
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 2: guess we have to keep telling you, is that the

489
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 2: major oil companies are shutting down refineries left and right.

490
00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 2: We used to have forty three in the state. We're

491
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 2: down to a out seven and from what I understand,

492
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 2: two of those seven don't even refine gasoline. They do biodiesel,

493
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 2: So we're really down to five gasoline refineries, and again

494
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 2: we used to have over forty and so now there's

495
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 2: a huge shortage of oil and gasoline where the oil

496
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 2: companies can't pump it at Bakersfield. They're largely not allowed to.

497
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 2: And now we're shipping in refined gasoline from all over

498
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 2: the world through the Bahamas, which is really expensive. And

499
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 2: overall there are more greenhouse gases, far more greenhouse gases

500
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 2: going into the air doing.

501
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 4: It that way.

502
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 2: But we have just an idiotic, absolutely moronic, idiotic gas

503
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 2: and oil policy here in California. And Tom Lackey talked

504
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 2: about how mass transit in rural areas is not an option.

505
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 2: People have long drives and they end up paying well

506
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 2: over one thousand dollars extra a year in gas taxes.

507
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 2: And you know, I said to them, it's like, it's

508
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 2: not so easy being inside the city of Los Angeles because,

509
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 2: like I said, I go from the West Side to Burbank.

510
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 2: I have the slightest idea how you do that without

511
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: driving a car. It's just impossible. And a lot of

512
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 2: people live in the valley and live north of the

513
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 2: valley around Santa Clarita, and they work in La on

514
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 2: the west side or they work in Orange County. I mean,

515
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 2: I see the traffic every day. There are no transit

516
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 2: lines to handle that. It's impossible. So along those lines,

517
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 2: The California Post their editorial board did an editorial. There's

518
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 2: a new study from Unleashed Prosperity and finds that nearly

519
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 2: every major metro area in the country, public transit market

520
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 2: share has dropped sharply, even though spending is way up.

521
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 2: So they're spending way more on public transit, but the

522
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,640
Speaker 2: number of people using public transit has dropped dramatically. In fact,

523
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 2: since nineteen sixty, transit spending is up sixfold across the country, sixfold,

524
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 2: but the percentage of commuters who actually take buses and

525
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 2: trains has fallen by two thirds. And I see this

526
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 2: every day. I got a Santa Monic, gonna stop at

527
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 2: the Bago shop. There's buses blown by me on Wilshire Boulevard.

528
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 2: They're all empty except for some drug addict homeless person

529
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 2: sitting balled up in the back. They're all empty. They

530
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,320
Speaker 2: spend the day. Some of these homeless people are getting

531
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 2: like private buses that act as limousines for them, and

532
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 2: they sit in the bus all day and the drivers

533
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 2: just take them up and down and up and down

534
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 2: Wilshire Boulevard. Only one out of every twenty five commuters

535
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 2: uses mass transit one out of twenty five, and in

536
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 2: the largest metro areas, sixty times more jobs are accessible

537
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 2: by car within thirty minutes than by transit. So that's

538
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 2: why people drive, because there's sixty times as many jobs available,

539
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 2: and people who drive along still get to work on

540
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 2: average under thirty minutes. I know a lot of people

541
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 2: in LA takes quite a bit longer than that, and

542
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 2: they conclude at the end.

543
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 4: It's because you get point to point travel.

544
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 2: You back out of your driveway, come out of your

545
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 2: apartment complex, and you drive into the parking lot wherever

546
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 2: you work, and there is no bus or subway or

547
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 2: train that's ever going to do that. So this is

548
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 2: another huge racket. It's costing us billions of dollars, and

549
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 2: very few people use these buses and trains, and these

550
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 2: systems should be dramatically cut back, and so should their funding.

551
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 2: But I'm sure there's a massive out of corruption there too,

552
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 2: just like there is at LAUSD and in the homeless industry,

553
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 2: in the high speed rail industry, and all of it

554
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 2: all right, we come back. We're going to talk to

555
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:15,120
Speaker 2: a reporter from the Hill dot com about Hillary Clinton

556
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 2: testifying today on how well she knew Jeffrey Epstein, and

557
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 2: there was a bit of a shutdown in the middle

558
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 2: of the hearing. Michael Krazer has the news in for

559
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 2: Deborah Mark live in the KFI twenty for our newsroom.

560
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 2: You've been listening to The John Cobelt Show podcast. You

561
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 2: can always hear the show live on KFI AM six

562
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 2: forty from three to six pm every Monday through Friday,

563
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 2: and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app

564
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 2: KFI Am six More stimulating talk