One Building in Van Nuys is home to 89 Licensed Hospice Businesses

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Speaker 1: And very happy Thursday to you. At twelve oh seven in the West, it's the John Phillips Show. Mister Randy Wings across the Glass. Just a reminder, today Isday, not Friday. We know it's not Wednesday, for sure.

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Speaker 2: Tuesday, Wednesday at day.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those days, but not Fridayday. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Did you see that Karen Bess, the mayor of Los Angeles, now wants to rename Caesar Chaves Day to farm Workers Day. It happened pretty quick. Did you see the legal opinion on that? What's the legal opinion? Well, Jeffrey Tuban says they can only legally name it after the eggplant pickers. Oh boy, I don't know why. Starting early today, aren't we.

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Speaker 2: All right?

00:01:01
Speaker 1: We told you that there's a lot of fraud going on in the state of California. We are the warm Minnesota in so many ways, and there's one specific neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley that is the epicenter. We know this because of an investigation from CBS News. There was also an online expose that went all over the place. Do you remember the name of that citizen journalist who did that, Nick Shirley. Nick Shirley, that's right, no relation to Laverne. He's doing great work out there in the valley. And now, Randy, we've got an update. CBS News went to investigate the building in Van Eyes that houses eighty nine registered hospices.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

00:01:45
Speaker 1: This is Van Eyes in the San Fernando Valley, the area of the city of La represented by Amelda.

00:01:53
Speaker 3: The neighborhood kids, the down ass kids don't like it.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: By the way, if you put that many hospices in one building, what do you call the building circling the drain square? For mar on the investigation into fraudulent hospices in Van Eyes, here is CBS News.

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Speaker 4: This was what we.

00:02:17
Speaker 5: Refer to as ground zero. That building is considered ground zero because it just was so blatant.

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Speaker 6: Hospice patient advocate Sheila Clark has been raising an alarm on this one building in LA for years. This building, our investigation found is home to eighty nine registered hospice companies.

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Speaker 2: How does that not raise any red flags?

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Speaker 1: Okay, I know nothing about this other than the basics. How much do you want to bet that the guide that owns that hospice is a guy with a shirt that's unbuttoned down to his belly button, tons of chest hair, more gold necklaces than mister t He's got a girlfriend and a wife on the side. How many sports cars do you think this guy has? Well, they're eighty nine different businesses. They're all not one guy. Okay, so he's got let's just say, seven or eight vehicles, yet sixteen handicapped parking placards.

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Speaker 6: It's called the Morabie Professional Medical Plaza, and it's the most extreme case of hospice clustering that we found.

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Speaker 5: And this particular building I noticed. I'm like, dang, dang.

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Speaker 2: I like her.

00:03:35
Speaker 5: I noticed, I'm like, dang, how can there be that many licensed and certified hospices in this tiny little building?

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Speaker 1: Well, how many of them use the online form with Shirley Weber's office that they don't check to see if you're legit to begin with? Boy, she doesn't get enough attention, does she, Because she may be She's right up there with Ricardo Laura and Karen Bass and bar arberal Lee is one of the worst public officials in the state. Don't forget about Bobby Bob Bonta. That's true. We went to he makes an appearance in this story.

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Speaker 6: Later we went to the Vanni's address to find out what's going on. We're going to try to go in and see what we can find. There's a directory.

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Speaker 7: Hospice, home health agency, hospice, hospice, they don't come. Just looking at this directory, you could see dozens of hospice agencies coming up the state, federal.

00:04:32
Speaker 1: It's just you know how they're all listed in alphabetical order. So there's a couple of a's, b c'sds AJJJJJJJJ all the hospices. Well, let's just say he was there to visit relative, why are they showing him away?

00:04:47
Speaker 6: The state and federal records for hospice agencies tell you a lot. State auditors have identified warning signs when they're looking for fraud, like multiple hospice offices packed into one building.

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Speaker 1: If only the state would actually listen to their audits, but of course they don't.

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Speaker 6: State auditors have identified warning signs when they're looking for fraud, like multiple hospice offices packed into one building, or caretakers whose patients who are supposedly at death door are discharged alive.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing how many of these hospice patients have a miraculous recovery. So what is the rule for hospice care. It's my understanding that you can only go into hospice care if you have six months or less to live. That's how it's supposed to be. But if you fudge the documents, you can have somebody that's perfectly healthy go into hospice care and then have a miraculous recovery and they didn't even know about it because their identity was stolen. And I also believe that if you're on hospice care, you are foregoing all medical treatment. So they're not even supposed to take a look at you at the hospital. Your doctor's not supposed to see you and give you a physical or whatever, because they know the answer.

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Speaker 2: The end is near.

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Speaker 1: It's supposed to make the end very comfortable, but it's pretty much that it's over. But turns out it is a hotbed for FAVAN.

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Speaker 6: According to our analysis, seventy two of the eighty nine registered hospices in Robbie Plaza have at least three of those potential warning signs.

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Speaker 5: This isn't possible. This It made no sense because I know what a license and certified hospice looks like.

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Speaker 6: We weren't the first ones to come to this building. Federal inspection records show that regulators visit in multiple suites and Robbie Plaza between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty five, and they found nearly four hundred violations.

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Speaker 1: Then how are these businesses still existing? It's so crazy. Look at what the people of the Pacific Palisades are going through, where they get fined right and left because they haven't cleaned up the rubble in front of a house that no longer exists, and the city comes down on you like a ton of brick. You have all of these hospices in one neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, and no one bothers to care if they're following any.

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Speaker 2: Of the rules.

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Speaker 6: At one a nurse wrote that a patient's family was satisfied with the care, but inspectors found no one from the hospice ever even visited that patient.

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Speaker 1: This is like the Phantom student scandal. This is going on all over. Of course it is because you can build medicare and no one's paying attention.

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Speaker 6: At another, the patient's chart listed medications for malaria and diabetes, but the patient told inspectors he wasn't taking either one, and at that.

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Speaker 2: He didn't even have diabetes.

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Speaker 6: But the patient told inspectors he wasn't taking either one. And at that same company, a hospice social worker wrote about a family's grief when their loved one had passed, but there is no evidence the patient was actually dead.

00:08:05
Speaker 1: Wait, so they're killing people that are still alive. On the Medicare reimbursement forums, they are what happened to your diabetic patient? Well, we can't produce them right now.

00:08:16
Speaker 2: Why is that?

00:08:17
Speaker 1: Well, they're on vacation. Where'd they go? Hershey, Pennsylvania.

00:08:21
Speaker 6: These hospices have been building Medicare for rebursement with your tax dollars for years.

00:08:28
Speaker 1: And whenever Gavin's trolls on the Internet see people posting about this story, they say.

00:08:35
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

00:08:36
Speaker 1: Gavin put a moratorium on new businesses in hospice since twenty twenty one. But it seems like we haven't done a damn thing to root out the existing fraudulent ones, including probably the vast majority of the eighty nine businesses in this one building, and he's not even here to deal with it because he's traveled around the country running for president.

00:08:58
Speaker 2: He went to south By.

00:09:00
Speaker 6: Why are we still seeing such, you know, rampant signs of this. Why hasn't more been done? We're committed to.

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Speaker 8: Oh it's Bobby Bob Bonta.

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Speaker 2: You knew he'd make an appearance.

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Speaker 6: You know, rampant signs of this. Why hasn't more been done?

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Speaker 9: We're committed to tackling the issue until we rooted out and extinguished all fraud.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't even aware that this was going on until it ended up on the news. This is the purview of the attorney general. But our attorney general does not care about investigating fraud, doesn't care about investigating crime. He's got one purpose, and it's not that instead of dealing with this, he's been suing the Trump administration over and over and over again and going after the card clubs because that's what his benefactors over at the Indian casinos want them to do.

00:09:51
Speaker 9: We're committed to tackling the issue until we root it out and extinguished all fraud.

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Speaker 6: So who's working to fix this? Well, the state Attorney general is the one responsible for investigating the industry here in California.

00:10:03
Speaker 1: By the way, Bobby's up for reelection kids, Bob Bonta.

00:10:07
Speaker 2: Well, if he's in charge, we're screwed.

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Speaker 9: California is always going to have the biggest numbers. We're the biggest state or the fourth large economy in the world. We have the most that's.

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Speaker 2: Not an excuse.

00:10:15
Speaker 1: By the way, if he's going to be the one that's going to be in charge of investigating this, then all of us should apply for licenses for hospices in that building.

00:10:23
Speaker 2: Start building medicare for everything.

00:10:25
Speaker 1: I mean, if they're just sending checks out, why not have it go to OZ. We here at the John Phillips Show did not advise you to commit any illegal activity.

00:10:35
Speaker 9: California is always going to have the biggest numbers. We're the biggest state or the fourth large economy in the world. We have the most people of any state, and.

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Speaker 1: We also have the most criminals and the most hospice facilities in one building.

00:10:46
Speaker 9: But this issue is unacceptable and we need to keep tackling it and do more.

00:10:49
Speaker 6: We're also following the money here. Medicare is federally administered. It's your federal tax dollars going to these hospices. So we sat down with doctor So we sat down with doctor man Em and as who heads this.

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Speaker 2: Oh boy, it's doctor oz Teime.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Well remember he got in trouble because he said, before all this happened, that there was a ton of fraud going on with these hospice care facilities and it was the Armenians that were doing it. Yeah, the Armenians don't like him because he's Turkish.

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Speaker 2: Oh so there's a history there. Yeah, but is it Armenians that are doing it?

00:11:24
Speaker 1: We have there's nothing in this story that says it's the Armenians that are doing this. So there are some Armenians that thought he was painting with a very broad brush. All right, well let's find out if it's the Armenians or not. I mean, it's not like this building was in Glendale.

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Speaker 6: So we sat down with doctor mem and Az, who heads the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. Is this accelerating the enforcement the shutting down of these hospices.

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Speaker 10: We have dramatically accelerated our ability to take out the bad guys by.

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Speaker 1: Stopping their pace. I just thought of that should big mindset shift. Yeah, maybe it is the Armenians. And this is how the Kardashians got all their money. They're bill and medicare. There's a lot of money there.

00:12:11
Speaker 10: We have dramatically accelerated our ability to take out the bad guys by stopping their payments, and that's the big mindset shift.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the Armenians don't like him because he won't recognize the Armenian genocide.

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Speaker 11: Ah.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: Yes, well there is a long, long, long history between those two, and.

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Speaker 10: That's the big mindset shift. I want to make it clear, we're not going to pay you money just because you sent me a piece of paper with a bill on it. We're going to check to make sure that's legitimate and that document is evidence that you actually perform them that's helpful to the American people, or you're not getting money from us.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: And that's something that every level of government should be doing. We shouldn't be rubber stamping checks to anybody when there is obvious fraud going on. But go back to what Shirley Weber said in the initial report. She said her office doesn't verify anything on any of those business licenses and it's not her job, so stop asking her.

00:13:01
Speaker 6: When we went back to Morabi Plaza, he found the building's owner, Comby's Morabi.

00:13:06
Speaker 4: I have vacancies. Tenant would come in as long as they're legit, they have valid things that we need, I rent. I'm not a police or keeper of what they do, how they do business.

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Speaker 2: He's just the landlord. Oh yeah, he's mister.

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Speaker 6: Fairly so from your perspective, they're licensed, you know, that's obviously the first sort of barometer of you know, measuring whether whether business or not.

00:13:39
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and these are not illegal businesses. These are licensed businesses with the State of California. The things they're doing are illegal, but nobody's paying attention. In his defense, if someone comes to him with a business license, my assumption would be that it's legit.

00:13:59
Speaker 2: It's sure only Weber.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: That has the problem because she's the one that's handing out all these licenses. If anyone belongs in one of those hospice care facilities, it's her political career, whether correctly business or not.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, and look maybe state and the federal government. It's becoming restrict on many businesses. And I'm all for it because at the end of that you and I are paying for all those things. That are not right.

00:14:32
Speaker 6: Moraami wouldn't let us walk the halls on our own to talk with hospice employees, but why not?

00:14:37
Speaker 1: Well, in theory, they're legitimate businesses where you have people who are in bed dying there.

00:14:43
Speaker 2: This guy on the take.

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Speaker 6: Miami wouldn't let us walk the halls on our own to talk with hospice employees, but told us this about any possible fraud. If you learn of hospices in your building that are accused of fraud, I would immediately you get rid of an Okay, yes, but that hasn't happened yet.

00:15:02
Speaker 4: No, I have No one has ever come to me tell me that, Okay, this sort that is doing fraud?

00:15:12
Speaker 2: Can you legally even do that? Do what? I think? Your license?

00:15:18
Speaker 1: Business is not in fact legal, So I'm going to break your leaves.

00:15:25
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can do that.

00:15:26
Speaker 1: California does have very strong eviction protections. So that is the latest piece from the continuing series of CBS News looking at the building in Van Eyes that has eighty nine registered hospices in it.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: Let's go to Jeff and Fremont. Jeff, Hello, Yeah, hi John, Randy.

00:15:50
Speaker 12: You guys are confusing palliative care with hospice care. My month's in hospice, I got the whole speech when the nurses came out. A typical hospice agency, just a bunch of nurses and doctors on staff. They don't have patients in bedstying, and the state of purpose is to keep older people out of the hospital. So a nurse comes out once a week, checks the medications, takes vitals, and leaves. Takes about fifteen thirty minutes. And like the lady that was running the autism clinic that was building outrageous amounts, I happened to look at my mom's bill. They're charging for those, you know, four visits a month for about fifteen minutes. They're charging Medicare six thousand dollars a month.

00:16:32
Speaker 1: That's totally outrageous for that level of care that you just described, right.

00:16:38
Speaker 12: So yeah, this, you know, I can imagine there could be a building with eighty three hospice cut these because you're just basically clearing houses for these nurses and doctors. They don't have any patients.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: All right, thank you for the call, SIRT. We appreciate it.

00:16:50
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two to two two five two to two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com and Randy. On Saturdays, you can listen to us in Fresno. There's gotta be a reason you guys keep promoting this. It's cause we love the Central Valley and we love that we get to put one hour of this nonsense on the Central Valley Saturdays at noon on Kmjanfresno. It's the Fix California Hour replay. You can listen to it on five eighty on the AM dial one A five point nine FM, or stream at at kmjnow dot com. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. What are you laughing at him?

00:17:41
Speaker 13: There?

00:17:42
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about what I'm gonna say for my next Santa Fe commercial. Oh, I have the TVs on in the background here. Now that everyone's on ozimpic, I don't know who anyone is. For the last thirty minutes, I thought I was sitting here watching al Sharpton. It's Sherry Shephard. You should see what it's like when I go out and people see me. I have to explain to everyone I didn't do o zempic. I don't know what day it is, I don't know what I'm watching on TV. I'm very confused today. What do you say we make a couple of listeners very happy? Well, let's do that right now. Seven ninety KABC Welcomes the Pussycat Dolls. The PCD Forever two are at the Acquazer Arena on June fifth. Tickets are on sale Friday at ticketmaster dot com. But right now, calling number nine at one eight at eight, seven ninety five to two to two too gets a pair of tickets to the show. Tickets furnished by Live Nation. Good Luck Dilight coming up later today. Spencer Pratt joins us in studio. You might have just cursed it, and Dan Walters is here at two o'clock. It's gonna be real funny if it doesn't happen. Now, I've been pretty good at cursing guys, haven't I Yes, you have, all right. We told you earlier this week that lausd was stirring the pot when it comes to UTLA, the union representing the teachers and wanting more money from the district.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: We demand higher pay.

00:19:14
Speaker 1: Cecily, my Art Cruz and the UTLA had a big old rally yesterday at Grand Park to announce that if they don't get exactly what they want by mid April, they're going on a big all strike. Now here's the good news. Although some might say it's the bad news, some might say it's the great news. They held a rally, and yes, they posted the entire video on Instagram, but the speakers were so loud that they blew out the speakers and you can't understand a word anybody saying. So by the time Cecily got up there, the sound was so grating and so terrible, I decided I cannot use.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: Any of it.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: Did any of them invoke se Chavez his name? I don't think that happened.

00:20:03
Speaker 2: Get that money.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: But for mar on the looming teachers strike at the nation's second largest school district, LAUSD, here is Fox eleven and ho, how lucky are we it's at Lasco's How crazy is that? Right?

00:20:19
Speaker 3: Adam? Thanks? Thousands turn out in downtown LA to fight for LA.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: It's Randy Marla.

00:20:25
Speaker 3: Adam Adam thanks. Thousands turnout in downtown LA to fight for LA schools. Teachers, parents, students and community members banding together tonight demanding higher wages and an end to LA USD layoffs. Otherwise they're talking about a PAS.

00:20:39
Speaker 1: What do I They do these at Grand Park and not MacArthur Park. Yeah, it's a great park. Didn't you hear that from Gavin Newsom?

00:20:46
Speaker 3: A possible strike? Fox loves at Laskos live there in Grand Park when the story the heat did not keep people away?

00:20:52
Speaker 8: Ed No very big crowd here, Marlon.

00:20:56
Speaker 14: Think about it, LA, with its second largest school district in all the country, could be hit by a teacher strike next month. That threat coming from the UTLA, the teachers union, saying if there is not an agreement by April fourteenth, then April fourteenth will be strike day in LA.

00:21:11
Speaker 1: And they're doing the same thing that they did three years ago where they're threatening to go on strike the exact same time that the classified employees are threatening to go on strike SEIU Local ninety nine, and that of course was the three day strike on Juesday Wednesday where the SEIU got everything they wanted and Cecily mayerk Cruz went from getting a twenty percent raise to a twenty two percent raise. If I'm not mistaken, I think the administrators are going to go on strike with them because they have a union. That's the praise a LA union, remember that one, Yes.

00:21:46
Speaker 2: L me or deadline? Oh faith, a strike line?

00:21:52
Speaker 8: A deadline now looke.

00:21:53
Speaker 1: Those rallies are so obnoxious and everyone has what do you call those moroccas?

00:22:00
Speaker 8: A deadline now.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: Some of them have tambourines, some of them have a big gong.

00:22:06
Speaker 8: A deadline.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: I want to have the OBO.

00:22:09
Speaker 14: A deadline now looming to strike LAUSD. The threat issued by the district's powerful teachers union, the UTLA, with its nearly thirty thousand members, all of.

00:22:18
Speaker 15: The social workers and all of the educators that I've talked to, They're all like, if we need to strike, will strike our students des ob it?

00:22:26
Speaker 1: How many social workers do we have at LAUSD? I thought they were all doing the policing now too bright.

00:22:35
Speaker 15: Will strength our students stop?

00:22:37
Speaker 2: Stay there? You can hear the big all drums, Oh yes, break.

00:22:40
Speaker 15: Will strength our students stop it?

00:22:43
Speaker 2: Our students deserve it. No no no, no, no, no no no.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: No, just be honest and say you're striking because you want more money.

00:22:51
Speaker 2: Don't say that this is for the kids.

00:22:54
Speaker 1: All of that went out the window when UTLA kept the schools closed for two years. Now here's a question, and typically we talk about the budget constraints and how the district can't give them what they want because they simply don't have the money. What if we went in the opposite direction, and what if we just decided, all right, let's let it collapse, Let's give them everything they want and then some and go bankrupt. Do you think, as a candidate for president, Gavin Newsom would want to bail out LAUSD, Because then it's going to look to the nation like your state's a basket case and big city school districts are producing awful results and going bankrupt. What kind of manager are you? Well, you're caught in quite a pickle because if you don't bail them out and the district fails, you may have a whole bunch of teachers' unions who refuse to support you. If you do bail them out, the rest of them are like, what are you doing? I don't think he can. It's like supporting a tax increase as much as he would love to support a tax increase, I don't think he can do that right now. And I don't think he can bail them out either, because the moment they get what they want and they go bankrupt and they need to bail out, Oakland's going to be right behind them, Sacramento is going to be behind them. San Diego, all the big city school districts are just going to do the same thing. Well, and that's what we're already seeing. Oakland just got out of receivership for making way too attractive deals and not making cuts, and now they might go right back into receivership with the deal that they just made to end that teacher strike. Sax City Unified made deals that they could not afford, and now they're about to go into receivership. And because of those sweetheart deals, all the surrounding school districts decided to go on strike because they want the deal that sax City Unified has, And of course Cecily sees all this striking and she wants.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: Hers, and I want you to be all the way this.

00:25:02
Speaker 1: At the same time that LAUSD is facing a I think it's like an eight hundred million dollar deficit.

00:25:10
Speaker 15: Right will strike our students just op it and we just can't stop at this point.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: Well, you definitely win.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: I mean, also, who are they negotiating with right now because Carvallo's on administrative leave for whatever went on with the FBI. Yeah, who's the understudy?

00:25:31
Speaker 8: It's the battle cry at this huge route.

00:25:33
Speaker 1: See, they screamed so loud that they blew out the speakers, they blew out the microphones. So when Cecily took the stage, you can't understand a word of it. Between the screaming and the pounding of the drums and all the people in the audience, it sounds like they're getting ready to sacrifice a virgin.

00:25:51
Speaker 14: It's the battle cry at this huge rally, grand park, covered in a sea of red, all union members with their signs of what could hit LAUSD?

00:25:59
Speaker 1: Do you think YOU'DA is doing the same thing that Oakland Unified did, where the teachers have just a room full of all their old strike signs because they go on strike so often, probably with.

00:26:11
Speaker 14: Their signs of what could hit LAUSD? We can't wait, it says, and this one strike ready all a sharp rejection of the district threat of planned layoffs.

00:26:20
Speaker 1: Yes, this district is broke right now and they just sent a whole bunch of layoffs and that's when Cecily says, well, we're gonna need more money.

00:26:27
Speaker 11: Then it is really shocking because the district has been has ten billion dollars and they beginning to outside contract. They haven't been meeting the rate of who they should be staffing in schools, and why can't they have this?

00:26:43
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe they're onto something with this crooked deal with Carvallo and the AI chatbot that was supposed to teach the kids algebra. Maybe the district is wasting a whole bunch of money on nonsense. Well I'm sure they are, but that still doesn't mean they have money for raises.

00:26:58
Speaker 11: Why can't they have the talented people in the district in the schools helping the student.

00:27:03
Speaker 14: It's the latest firestorm to hit the second largest school district in all the country. It's in battled superintendent Alberto Cavallo still suspended with pay under investigation by the FEDS and.

00:27:13
Speaker 1: The You know, the thing that is not talked about enough is why are their projected layoffs? Why is it tough to be giving out raises because the enrollment decline is happening more and more and more. This district is forty three percent smaller student wise than it was twenty years ago. And don't think that's just because people are moving out of California because of the cost of living and they've just had it for a variety of reasons. That is certainly a huge part of it. But another part of it is that the people of means, people who have alternatives choose not to send their kids to those schools because they're so awful. So they'll send them to private schools, they'll send them to charter schools, they'll homeschool them, they'll about their address and send them to different school districts. They find other ways to get their kids educated. Just look at this. In twenty twenty five twenty twenty six, LAUSD dropped four percent in enrollment. That means sixteen thousand kids. And on the lower end, you can assume that we spend about twenty five thousand dollars per student. If you're spending twenty five thousand dollars per student and you lost sixteen thousand, that means that LAUSD has four hundred million dollars less than it did.

00:28:35
Speaker 2: Got to cut.

00:28:36
Speaker 8: Something under investigation by the FED.

00:28:40
Speaker 1: The reason I can do that math it's two things. One I have a calculator, but two, I didn't go to LAUSD. Neither did I william S Hart School District for life.

00:28:49
Speaker 8: Under investigation by the FEDS.

00:28:50
Speaker 14: And now this labor threat with a district saying it's quote actively engaged in negotiations with our labor partners and remains committed to reaching agreements that balance the needs of students, families, and staff while ensuring long term fiscal stability.

00:29:05
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:29:06
Speaker 1: I think Cecily wants to strike because if you strike in mid April, you know what that means. That means they're going to continue this thing all the way down. Well, what do you think works out better for Cecily negotiating with the district when the superintendent is under investigation and I guess there's a temporary superintendent or waiting until whatever happens to Carvallo happens to Carvallo and they replace him with someone new. No, now's the time to strike because the district has a whole lot of answering to do.

00:29:37
Speaker 2: But again, I don't know what they do.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: You can do what they did in San Francisco and Oakland, where you can give the teachers what they want and immediately announced layoffs because you do not have the budget. They lost four hundred million dollars last year, and by the way, every time there's more strikes, you have more parents that say, screw it, I'm going to a different district. So they're probably going to lose another four hundred million dollars next year.

00:30:00
Speaker 14: Our offers are among the highest in California. Still, the union line has now been drawn.

00:30:06
Speaker 16: Need a bad line.

00:30:07
Speaker 1: Oh, they got a twenty two percent raise three years ago. Anybody else get a twenty two percent raise over the last three years? Nut in radio April, Oh, need the stright line.

00:30:21
Speaker 14: Now, I meet the strike line. Part of the rallying cry here. But so you know, they're still talking back and forth, both sides in the union stresses while they have that deadline. If there's an agreement before April fourteenth, they'll call off the strike. But right now, at this hour, Marla, that April fourteenth deadline.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: Still stands, and it's impacting so many people, to your point, and we're talking bus drivers, teachers, assistants, cafeteria workers, janitorial staff. The list goes on and on ed.

00:30:50
Speaker 14: Yeah, on and on Marl and then you look at it as it really goes down the line, all the parents, all their children and everybody infected.

00:30:56
Speaker 8: Huge impact here.

00:30:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, But do the teachers union care about the fact that the kids are not going to get an education?

00:31:03
Speaker 2: They do not.

00:31:04
Speaker 1: Nope, it's not about the kids. It's about the teachers. Just be honest with that. Don't say that this is about the kids. There is nothing about keeping the schools closed for two years that was about the kids, especially when the demands to reopen included defund the LAUSD Police Department and they were back on campus in other states. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number? What eight hundred two two two five two two two. Spencer Pratt joins us after the news it won You can't jinx it now because he's already here, all right. So we know that the cost of gasoline in California is so much higher than it is in other states, including neighboring states like Arizona and Nevada. So there is a push in the legislature to suspend the gas tax so that Californians would get a little relief at the pump. But Randy, we have some bad news. The California Legislature has rejected Tony Strickland's motion to suspend the gas tax, and the gas tax the gas price spikes. For more on this here is CBSLA.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: Prices at the pump continue surging amid the war with Iran, and the battle has made its way to Sacramento, and Republicans made another pust.

00:32:19
Speaker 2: Not the war battle, the battle over gas.

00:32:21
Speaker 17: Yes, and Republicans made another push to suspend the states of gas tax, but Democrats shut it down. CBSLA political reporter Tom Wade is live in Valley Village where he spoke with drivers who they just want to relieve hunt.

00:32:34
Speaker 13: Tom absolutely padded rue De Bay prices are so high right now, about a dollar on average higher than it was this time last year, and.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: Gas almost a dollar higher than it was this time last month.

00:32:49
Speaker 13: And gas stations are trying some well, let's you say, confusing tactics to get people to come in. Take a look at this sign here the lidup Marquee shows prices right, but that's only if you're getting a car wash, if you're just coming in to get gas. Check it take a look at that sign there that's not well lit. The prices are a little higher.

00:33:07
Speaker 1: That's false advertising right there. You know where gas is cheap, that one Chevron station in Long Beach. It's free if you take it out of the ground and don't give them any ideas safety.

00:33:18
Speaker 2: Cashier's dummy.

00:33:21
Speaker 13: As gas prices soar a fight in Sacramento over what to do about it.

00:33:26
Speaker 18: Trump's disastrous war in Iran is obviously causing a huge amount of pain at the pump, and I hope to see that result as soon as possible.

00:33:32
Speaker 13: On Wednesday, Huntington Beach Republican State Senator Tony Strickland put forward legislation to temporarily suspend the state gas tax.

00:33:41
Speaker 2: Members, this bill is about affordability.

00:33:44
Speaker 16: It's about immediate relief for California families.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: Well, Tony, I got news for you.

00:33:48
Speaker 1: The California legislature only likes to say the word affordability.

00:33:52
Speaker 2: They don't actually mean it.

00:33:54
Speaker 16: It's about immediate relief for California families.

00:33:56
Speaker 18: Your bill is not going to help decrease the the transportation of foreign oil coming into California.

00:34:03
Speaker 13: According to Triple A, the average price for a gallon of gas in Los Angeles is hovering around five dollars and sixty five cents. It's a little less in the Inland Empire, Orange and Ventura counties, but overall, drivers are paying about a dollar more for a gallon than they did a year ago. At this time, but at a.

00:34:20
Speaker 16: Time when Democrats and Republicans in California said the number one issue is affordability, my bill was the only way that we could actually immediately drop gas prices. And my bill would have drop gas prices by a dollar eight gallon.

00:34:33
Speaker 13: State Democrats blocked suspending Yeah, but then Tony, we wouldn't get to fund the high speed rail.

00:34:39
Speaker 1: And don't forget the reason that we get from Gavin as to why gas is so much more expensive here than other places is not because of the taxes and cap and trade and all that jazz. He claims that the oil companies all got together and colluded against this one state.

00:34:57
Speaker 2: I'm sick and tired of being screwed.

00:34:59
Speaker 13: State Democrat blocked suspending the gas tax, claiming the savings for drivers would be far less and the impact of the lost revenue would be far worse.

00:35:08
Speaker 1: The state of California's budget is three hundred and fifty billion dollars. The gas tax brings in about eight billion. It's nothing kill it.

00:35:17
Speaker 18: It funds things that include housing, transportation.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: Housing, well, I guess if you considered the freeway overpasses to be housing.

00:35:29
Speaker 18: It funds things that include housing, transportation, air monitoring, CalFire, California.

00:35:35
Speaker 2: None of those are paving the roads.

00:35:37
Speaker 1: No, And also shouldn't we be funding all those other things with other taxes? Oh no, No, that's all going to the hospice facilities over in the Valley, California.

00:35:47
Speaker 13: Drivers already pay some of the highest prices for gas across the country, and with refinery closures, the costs could go even higher.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: It has been a sticker shock.

00:35:56
Speaker 6: Yeah, especially in my particular area that I live in, which is the Inland Empire, it's been it's been unusually pricing.

00:36:04
Speaker 13: As for suspending the gas tax.

00:36:06
Speaker 8: It's over my pay grade, That's what I'm saying.

00:36:08
Speaker 13: Expert say, can expect continued volatility as the war in Iran rages on?

00:36:13
Speaker 2: They don't expect? Say that rhymed, he could be mayor.

00:36:17
Speaker 13: Experts say, can expect continued volatility as the war in Iran rages on? They don't expect gas prices to go down by any significant amount anytime soon. Reporting live in studio are a valley village. I'm Tom Waite, CBSLA.

00:36:31
Speaker 2: It's practically studio city. You're fine.

00:36:34
Speaker 1: Coming up next, we're going to be joined in studio for the full hour by candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt.

00:36:41
Speaker 2: Don't you go anywhere. It's the John Phillips Show.