Tony Thurmond on his race for Governor

00:00:00
Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on the Giant Phillips Show. Mister Randy Wang's in Culver City.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: You cursed us again, didn't you.

00:00:09
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know who on the other side I offended. But whenever I tease ahead, whoever it is it's supposed to be here isn't here. How many times in a row has that happened.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: It's happened quite a lot this year.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: And they teach you when you start broadcasting you always have to tease ahead. You always have to let the audience know what's coming up. If you don't tease ahead, people won't stick around. And so I tease ahead and then I get slapped.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: I think we can stop teasing ahead. It'll just be a pleasant surprise if the guest that's booked actually shows up.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do?

00:01:08
Speaker 3: Oh, Tony Thurman, What in the world could you be too busy to do?

00:01:11
Speaker 2: Right now?

00:01:13
Speaker 1: We're trying to collect the Tonys. We had Tony Vira Gosa Antonio, he was on the show. He did it twice. Tony Atkins dropped out, so she's not going to be doing any press. So Tony Thurman's the last Tony. This could be him calling in. It could also not be. We'll see. There's a screening happening right now as we speak. Oh, it's gonna be him. It's happening, Johnny.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: I'll give you the green light in any minute, now, any second, now, Okay, you're good to go.

00:01:45
Speaker 1: All right. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is the Superintendent of Public Instruction here in the state of California, overseeing California's public school system. He's also a candidate for governor. Get him online at Tony Thurman dot com and you can follow him on x at Tony Thurman Superintendent. Tony Thurman.

00:02:08
Speaker 4: Welcome, Hey, thanks for having me on.

00:02:10
Speaker 1: How you doing, John, I'm good, Thanks so much for stopping by this afternoon.

00:02:15
Speaker 4: Thank you.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: So let's just start out with the pitch. Why should you be the next governor of the state of California.

00:02:22
Speaker 4: Hey, Ultimately the voters will decide, but you know, I've got eighteen years of experience in this state leading under very difficult circumstances, you know, building housing, you know, building programs to help our students who are hungry and helping them to do better in school and addressing homelessness. And so I'm running as a candidate with the plan to build two million housing units and to help the ten thousand homeless teams in our state and help Californias get good paying jobs. And so I hope that matters to the people of California and I'm submitting my experience to them as someone who wants to continue serving and helping the people in this state at this very difficult time.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: What do you make of this effort, given the fact that the ballots go out and I think a little under a month right now, and people are now starting to pay attention to the race in ways that they weren't before. We had the Super Bowl going on, we had all kinds of sporting events, the holidays, people were preoccupied with other things, and now they're starting to focus on the gubernatorial race. And there was a debate that was supposed to take place over at USC and you were going to be excluded from that debate. And I can't figure out for the life of me why they're trying to do that at this point, particularly when polling is something they typically cite. Okay, Whenever you look at a poll, there's always a margin of ara, there's a plus or minus. And because so many candidates in this race are bunched up together, you guys at the bottom aren't very far from the people who are polling in the first place slot, the second place slot, the third place slot. When you look at the margin Evra, it just tells you, essentially that they're all clumped together. I don't understand this effort to try to deny these voices, deny the voices of some of the candidates who are running from being able to participate in these debates so that the people of California can hear an honest discussion about what the future of the state should be.

00:04:23
Speaker 4: I don't know I can put it any better than you just did. That people of California should be able to hear from all the candidates and have that honest discussion about the future of the state, hear from each of the candidates so they can make their selection. Maybe the issue is that they just think they're too many people and they want to limit the voices. But we've been in a bunch of debates where we've had as many as ten candidates and there's plenty of time devoted to each of the issues. And so, you know, this is a democracy and people should be able to hear from the candidates. Now, look, if a host wants to change rules, I don't agree with those choices, but that's their choice. But in this case, they change the rules to admit after the fact another candidate who they said was also low polling. And so the point I was making is, look, be open and fair and democratic about how you do it, but don't change the rules to favor some new candidate. And so that was completely you know, out of pocket, as they say, And so I spoke up about it, and yeah, the outcome of what they did was to keep any candidate who is a personal color out of the conversation. What message does that send? You know? I just thought it was a bad look for USC And instead of saying, hey, let us make some corrections here, they flat out canceled the debate. I just thought, Wow, that's an even worse look for them. Having said that, you know, we're focusing on our conversation with the voters. As you say, we're getting closer to election day, and we have great message and we know the voters here our message that it helps us to win, and so we're focused there on doing the outreach and doing the hard work that we need to do to reach the voters in this state.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: It seems to me also like the politics of it are stupid because they wanted to push guys out of the race. The chairman of the party asked you guys to drop out, and I think Ian Calderon was the only one who took him up on the offer. And then they tried to exclude you from the debates. Well, okay, so I guess they want one of the three top performing Democrats. Well, today one of them, Eric Swalwell, was accused of sexual harassment from people who used to work in his office. When Katie Porter had that video come out of her swearing at a staffer, she was asked, could you promise us that there won't be another video like that that comes out? She couldn't say that there wouldn't be if they were to push you guys out of the race. And one of the people at the top implodes, do you really want to be stuck with that with no other options?

00:06:44
Speaker 4: Now you raise a great point. The chairman of the Democratic Party literally texted me a note saying, get out on the day that I was going to file my candidacy and file my papers to run. You know, if they were trying to whittle down the number of candidates, that's a conversation that probably should have taken place six months ago, nine months ago. And to send that as a text message, you know, my cell phone is the worst kept secret in this state. Everyone knows how to reach me. The chair of the party knows how to reach me. I just thought it was classless. It was questionable, you know, as you indicate, these candidates are sort of broiled in controversy on different levels. You know, I want the voters to know that there's another candidate who has a plan, and who is the only candidate who's articulated a plan for building two million housing units and for restoring the American dream for Californias who can't afford to live here, giving down payment assistance to make sure that people can buy a home. And a candidate who is saying, hey, let's give text credits to working people and middle class people who need a little more money to keep up with the rising cost of gas, in grocery and housing. I think those are things that people will care about and I hope if people you know your followers will check us out at Tony Thurman dot com to learn more about how we want to help address the high cost of living in our state.

00:08:04
Speaker 1: Your background is education. You are the state superintendent of public instruction here in California. That's what you spend your time on. And I've got a question for you. Popped up over the weekend when I was talking to a friend and we're talking about how the state of California can do some things well. They can do some things very well. Higher education in California is something that is almost universally respected all over the country. Our community colleges are great, The California State University is great. The University of California is great. Not only is the education that they provide a good one, but the value is there. Our public universities, compared to public universities and other states, are much cheaper and they are frequently more highly regarded than other public universities. But then you look at K through twelve and I don't have a person in my social network who lives in a big city who has their kids in the public school system, Not in La not in San Francisco, not in Oakland. If they stay in the city, they put their kids in private schools because the schools are awful and they don't want to put their kids in those public schools. The other thing that many of them do is they just move to a suburban area where the schools are good and they are willing to put their kids in those public schools. K through twelve. Why is it that our K through twelve system struggles as much as it does, but our higher education system seems to be clicking on all cylinders.

00:09:35
Speaker 4: Well, you raise a good point, and there's so much more that we still have to do to make changes in education. You know, we cannot rest in our laurels. There's been a little bit of growth. But even when I came to this job in twenty nineteen, you know, reading scores and math scores, by and large, we're pretty low. And then we have the pandemic, and so they took another drop. And now they're back to pre pandemic levels for the most part. And we're seeing some bright spots. You know, in our biggest districts were seeing you know, incredible Los Angeles, Compton, other places. We're seeing incredible growth for our students around reading and math proficiency, but as a state, it has been sluggish and we have a lot more work to do, and that has factored into my decision I'd like to continue serving. I'm in my final term in states superintendent in their schools, and you know, I came to this office really believing that we can make education better and it's just taking longer. I mean literally, in the pandemic, I discovered that there were six million students who did not have access to a computer or access to the internet, and at that time that was the only way that they could be connected. So here I am asking for donations and having to secure money. We secured six billion dollars to give broadband in our state and another million computers donated in hot spots for our kids. But we have to do better than that, and that's why I'm leading this new effort. It's a five year plan to make sure all of our kids learn to read by third grade. Other states have done it. They've done these long term reading plans where there's more more the sexiest screening, and more tutoring, and so California needs to build one and fund it. You know, the voters have been very generous and giving lots of resources, but our schools still struggle with funding because we have a system where you only get money every day when students are present, and we have a lot of kids who are absent, and so we have to change that system. If we change that system to be based on our enrollment, it means six billion dollars more for the state without asking voters for any more money. And so as governor, I would certainly like to create that type of a system. We also have to help we have homeless students. We have ten thousand homeless teens right now, sixteen and seventeen on their own who need help, and I'm working on a proposal to house them and get them support and get them into training programs. We have more than two hundred and forty thousand homeless students in our state and kids who are hungry. I mean, California is the fourth wealthiest economy in the world. We could do better, and you know, as hard as it is, I'm rolling up my sleeves and saying, let's find a way to make sure that California does better and do better. In higher education, our colleges and university struggle. They don't have the dollars for facilities. We have so many homeless kids. I actually introduced the bill that says we'd make college free for California kids because right now California students in colleges have higher debt than we've ever seen. I'd rather than be able to put that money towards buying a home or launching a business. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm rolling up my sleeves to continue doing network and I believe that this reading about third grade plan is going to help us see real dividends in terms of the return that we get for our students in terms of their performance.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: One of the states that people frequently look down their nose yet is Mississippi. Mississippi is frequently at the bottom of every list that you could look at, whether it's reading, math, whatever, high school graduation. The state of Mississippi has gone all in on phonics and they are seeing growth among reading scores among their K through twelve students, like no one thought was possible. What do you make of what's going on there and their success.

00:13:02
Speaker 4: Well, you have a great example. You know, they had a ten year plan and every student got access to the phonics education, and so that's the plan that I'm referring to here in California, and in this case, I'm suggesting we do it in five year increments in measure. But it is based in premise on providing phonics instruction. And I don't know why, but it's been a huge fight to get phonics in our schools. And I've had to go to the legislature to get approval to make sure that every new teacher gets trained in phonics based instruction, to make sure that all of our school districts are using phonics based instruction. Now our schools are, and so I believe we're going to see some growth for our schools and some catching up, but it has been a big fight just to get there. And so now we'll have more phonics, we'll have more dyslexia screening. That too, has been a big fight. It took two years just trying to get a bill heard that would ensure we have dyslexia screening in our schools. And I said, hey, I'm not having that. Seventy plus percent of those in our jails can't read. That means that they had the sexy or other learning difficulties that didn't get recognized. And so you know, I leaned all the way in and got that bill you know, passed, and ultimately convinced the governor to put the money in the budget for us to have the sexiest screening. So we've got a lot of the pieces, but we have to put them together. Now. We got to mash down on the gas and make sure that our kids are ready, both in reading and math. I also passed legislation to make sure our kids learned personal finance. This means that they'll have less debt and they'll learn how to manage money. They're more likely to go to college. We've got to double down on what we do around computer science and technology. There's probably eighty five thousand jobs and technology that could go unfilled unless our schools align more with AI and technology. And so those are the things that we're promoting to help our students. And I'll be an education governor continuing to bring this work on behalf of nearly six million students in our public schools.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: I want to go back to something you said. You said that phonducts you had to fight for because it's so controversial. Why is it controversial? It works? Are a dozen and We've seen a lot of evidence, including what's going on right now in Mississippi, that it does work.

00:15:08
Speaker 4: Clearly, it works, and I think people are sometimes afraid of the things that they don't know. There was some feeling that it was going to leave out if you only teach students to recognize words but not understand the word, that there would be a misrepresentation about what students really know. There were concerns about English learners and that they might be able to recognize the word but not know the meaning of the word. And so I've investigated this in other states, and we have found that other states have used phonics and they've been able to make sure that even English learners understand the meaning of the word and there been no setbacks and no drawbacks. They call it the science of reading, right. Phonics is a big part of the science of reading, and what it really means is we have to study the way the brain works and the way our brains learn and to make sure we give information to students in those ways. And so for the first time in California's history, all of our requirements align with making sure that we have this science of reading and phonics based instruction and everyone who's in a teacher training program right now is getting trained on how to teach in a phonics based way, and so it's been a huge fight. We've gotten over that hump and now we're in a position where students can benefit from that hard work. We also have to fill a lot of vacancies in our education workforce, and you know, we do have scholarships for those who want to become teachers mental health clinicians. Right now, I can offer ten thousand dollars to anybody who wants to become a teacher or a mental health clinician, and once they're in a teacher training program to get their credential, they're going to learn about phonics based instruction as the way to go and making sure our students have what they need to be able to be proficient readers.

00:16:55
Speaker 1: To my eye, the biggest mistake we've made in public education in my lifetime in this state was keeping the schools shut down as long as we did during COVID. They were open in places like Florida, where on campus instruction commenced long before it did in California. In California and some of the big city school districts like LAUSD. They were shut down the longest. Do you think public Education realizes that they made a massive, massive, massive mistake keeping those schools shut down as long as they did.

00:17:28
Speaker 4: You know, we have a thousand school districts in this state, and each of them makes their own rules about open and close, and I think people were just scared, you know, looking back, many people were scared. I was scared. Both of my children graduated from the public schools in California and they were both in school and during the pandemic, and it was a scary time. I'll tell you when things change for me is when we approached you know, November, there was some clarity that you could use things like rapid COVID tests to get people back in school, to you know, keep people home who were sick and in school fewer you tested negative. And so we wrote guidance that said, hey, get people back in school and use the PPE used the rapid COVID tests. You know, the governor worked with the legislature to carve out a plan that would get people back. And it was kind of a fancy way of saying, you get more money for the fewer days that your schools are virtual. It backfired. But I'll have to say this, every state, even those that had some school days open sooner than California, every state struggled with what we call learning loss and learning gaps. Every state. I'll say this, no state has done more than California to do more to offset that learning loss. Extra tutoring. We gave schools money for a longer school day, extra tutoring, more equipment, more computers, all the things that California is doing, and more after school programs. Everything California is doing, you know, is dramatically more than you'll see in any other state. Unfortunately, a pandemic is like a one time, hopefully one time worldwide thing that I hope we never deal with again. I mean, one hundred thousand people lost their lives here. Hopefully we never see that again. There's no question that learning loss results as a result of it, but people were trying to keep kids safe, and what we're seeing is that there's learning loss at every state in California's doing more to combat that learning loss.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: Tony Thurman, California Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate for governor. You could get him online at Tony Thurman dot com and follow him on x at Tony Thurman, Superintendent Thurman. Thanks so much for stopping by.

00:19:37
Speaker 4: Thank you, take care.

00:19:38
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two what eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so. Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny, don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy, if you want to listen to us after we sign off at three, that's easy to do. I mean, it's quite a bad of honor that after three hours of this you don't think any of the other radio shows on any of the other radio stations are worth your time. So you just want to listen to this stuff over and over and over again.

00:20:11
Speaker 2: Thank you.

00:20:12
Speaker 3: Search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts, whether it's the Apple Podcasts app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You could do a Google on the YouTube. You can get the free KABC app, the free KSFO app, even the KMJ now app because we're on that station Saturdays at noon. So many different ways to listen live to this show from noon to three. Wherever you are thanks to streaming, and you could download all of the podcasts and listen to it whenever you want.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: All right, it's now time to open up the California Crime Blodder.

00:20:47
Speaker 2: It's happened yet again.

00:20:48
Speaker 1: This wow, wow, what's up here?

00:20:51
Speaker 5: Dundum dun dundun dun reached the Califonia Crime Blodder with.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: Joe and the first edition takes us to San Diego.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: Where a city attorney and we're seeing a lot of this lately, has decided to sue a spa that is a front for prostitution. Uh oh, apparently it's really hard to shut these locations down.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I don't understand it.

00:21:26
Speaker 1: They're all over the place. They seem to be pretty popular.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: It's like, apparently it's impossible for the LA city attorney to shut down the illegal pot stores.

00:21:36
Speaker 2: Then what is your job?

00:21:38
Speaker 3: What if you can't shut they will shut you down if you're a legitimate business because you don't have a mop sink in the right place, but you're operating illegally. You're a front for a criminal enterprise and they can't shut you down.

00:21:52
Speaker 1: Well, if you shut down the massage parlors, that means they can't go there anymore.

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Maybe that's what it is for more. Here is NBC in San Diego.

00:22:02
Speaker 6: We're going to start tonight in University Heights, where the San Diego City Attorney claims a local massage business is really a front for prostitution. This spa is on Adams Avenue, near businesses, homes, a park in BC seven's Jenekaesada spoke with the city attorney and also neighbors.

00:22:19
Speaker 7: This is the nineteen page complaint this San Diego City Attorney filed against the owner of Osaka Massage.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: On every single one of the names makes me laugh.

00:22:33
Speaker 3: I don't think they were doing any Shiatsu at Osaka.

00:22:37
Speaker 7: Filed against the owner of Osaka Massage on Adams Avenue for allegedly operating as an ongoing front for prostitution and illegal activity in the University Heights neighborhood. According to the San Diego City Attorney, the property developed a reputation online as a destination for prostitution.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: What gave it away? Was it the ads on Craigslist?

00:23:02
Speaker 1: I'm guessing there were several red flags.

00:23:04
Speaker 3: Were they offering table showers and four hands massage?

00:23:11
Speaker 1: Burke Williams, It's not.

00:23:14
Speaker 3: I don't know if anybody has ever legitimately asked for a table massage, a table shower.

00:23:21
Speaker 7: With more than one hundred and thirty five ads and reviews referencing sexual services at that.

00:23:26
Speaker 3: Location doesn't help when the Yelp review says, well, if you want that, you can get it here.

00:23:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're in the shop, can't you find a way to get that deleted?

00:23:41
Speaker 4: Now?

00:23:41
Speaker 2: I got to look this place up on Yelp.

00:23:42
Speaker 7: With more than one hundred and thirty five ads and reviews referencing sexual services at that location.

00:23:49
Speaker 8: This is a neighborhood that is a virant part of our city where a lot of people are engaging in their everyday activities. And to have this kind of nuisance activity and.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: This here's the first review. Five stars. This is one of those massage parlors. If you catch my drift, I am in tears. All the middle aged women are upset that they didn't enjoy their massage. Fellas, this is the place to go for that kind of massage.

00:24:19
Speaker 2: Soccer moms stay away. Five stars.

00:24:23
Speaker 1: They call them gentlemen's massages.

00:24:29
Speaker 8: Despite multiple attempts to try and get compliance, it was time to do something else.

00:24:34
Speaker 7: The complaint states that undercover officers with the San Diego Police Department were often solicited for sex.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: Okay, another review here from Steven. He uses a term that I can't use to describe what this establishment is. The R and T come on. Of course they don't know proper massage techniques. They are focused on the work after the flip at the end, good serve nice ladies and reasonable prices.

00:25:03
Speaker 2: How many stars did he give them? Four stars?

00:25:07
Speaker 8: Despite multiple attempts to try and get compliance, it was time to do something else.

00:25:12
Speaker 3: The complaints say, if you're a front, you're a criminal enterprise. This is obviously not a legitimate business. You can't take their license away. You can't evict them. What a Shirley Weber in charge of that too?

00:25:24
Speaker 7: The complaint states set undercover officers with the San Diego Police Department were often solicited for sex and nearly every visit they made to the site.

00:25:34
Speaker 3: How long was that investigation and how many times did they have to go to be thorough?

00:25:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure they had plenty of volunteers.

00:25:44
Speaker 7: The complaint states set undercover officers with the San Diego Police Department were often solicited for sex and nearly every visit they made to the site, adding that employees allegedly.

00:25:55
Speaker 3: Offered here's a one star review because he was not offered a happy ending.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: What police department is that guy.

00:26:02
Speaker 3: With regular massage and they still expect tips And I didn't ask for anything else, never coming back there ever again.

00:26:13
Speaker 7: The complaint states that undercover officers with the San Diego Police Department were often solicited for sex and nearly every visit they made to the site, adding that employees allegedly offered sex acts for additional payment, negotiated prices, and engage in loued conduct inside private rus.

00:26:32
Speaker 3: Now did they verbally say what the services were going to be or was this a little show and tell?

00:26:38
Speaker 1: Well, I think sometimes it's what you'd call nonverbal communication.

00:26:43
Speaker 2: They're playing charades, uh.

00:26:46
Speaker 7: Huh an engage in loued conduct inside private rooms.

00:26:50
Speaker 8: And that's part of the reason we decided it was time to file on this because clearly repeated interactions with the police Department, with Building in Land Use Enforcement, with our office were not getting the compliance we were looking for.

00:27:01
Speaker 3: As you can see behind me, the compliance of stop offering prostitution services.

00:27:09
Speaker 1: If they do that, no more tips.

00:27:11
Speaker 7: As you can see behind me, the business is still in operation. We knocked on the door hoping to speak with someone, but no one answered. We did get an opportunity to talk with several neighbors in the area and get their reaction. Paul Coogan says he bikes along the Adams Avenue corridor almost every evening.

00:27:29
Speaker 9: I'm not surprised really, the hours seemed a little late.

00:27:35
Speaker 3: Nobody gets a legitimate massage at ten pm.

00:27:38
Speaker 1: Boy, nothing gets past this guy. Here's another review.

00:27:43
Speaker 3: By the way, this review is from seventeen years ago. It's official. This is a massage joint. First off, they're open way too late to be a normal massage joint. SAG and every single time I walk in there, which I admit is often because I hope to one day actually encounter another human to answer my questions about their business, I am greeted with an empty waiting room and a surveillance camera. I ring the door, nothing happens. I wave to the camera, nothing happens. I walk in with friends, nothing happens. I yell, stream fall the floor in convultse nothing happens. I just want to hear from somebody, anybody who has actually gotten a massage or a massage here. I won't judge. I promise. I just want to know that I'm right about this place.

00:28:29
Speaker 1: This guy is a talented writer.

00:28:32
Speaker 3: But again, that reviews from seventeen years ago. This place has been known to be doing this for decades.

00:28:44
Speaker 9: I'm not surprised, really, the hours aways seemed a little late.

00:28:50
Speaker 7: Shall Ling Mead, echoing a similar experience.

00:28:53
Speaker 10: I walk by this establishment frequently, often after seven in the evening.

00:28:59
Speaker 1: She was this hard.

00:29:00
Speaker 3: Here's another review. This one's from fourteen years ago. For science was one of the reasons I told myself I was coming here. It'll be a new experience. You've never had a massage before. Besides, it's in your neighborhood and you like to know the area you live in. Also, it's for science.

00:29:17
Speaker 2: It worked.

00:29:18
Speaker 3: I was convinced, and with this I was able to sell myself on coming in.

00:29:27
Speaker 7: She was disheartened to hear about the alleged illicit activity happening inside and says it raises public safety concerns for the community.

00:29:36
Speaker 10: You don't know who's working there. Are they working voluntarily? Might that be an opportunity for human trafficking?

00:29:43
Speaker 3: That's exactly what it is. And for all of the city attorneys, including LA City Attorney Heidie Feldstein Soto that gets all over stopping human trafficking. They're not shutting down these establishments that are in every other strip mall in the state.

00:29:58
Speaker 1: Now, if they're a human t affect into the country to work in one of these establishments, do they go through Ellis Island or Jeffrey Epstein's Island.

00:30:07
Speaker 10: That kind of delegitimizes folks that are trying to have a legitimate massage business.

00:30:15
Speaker 7: But not everyone feels the same.

00:30:17
Speaker 5: I'm kind of surprised that that is what's going on, but it's not causing any problem.

00:30:24
Speaker 2: But to the neighborhood, he's a regular.

00:30:27
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I bet you if they have one of those cards with the whole punch, that guy's getting real close to the free one.

00:30:35
Speaker 7: Ferbert says. The civil lawsuit aims to accomplish two things. Shut down the business operation for one year and hold the over.

00:30:42
Speaker 2: That's the best you can do.

00:30:46
Speaker 1: If they shut it down for a year, they're just going to open up another location.

00:30:53
Speaker 3: You're operating a brothel which is not legal in the state. And what because we need to like those business taxes every single year, We're not going to just shut them down and imprison them.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to Tombstone, Arizona before? I have not, even back in the old days, the brothels were an important part of the town square.

00:31:17
Speaker 7: Shut down the business operation for one year and hold the owner accountable through penalties of up to twenty five hundred dollars per day per violation and investigative costs for the alleged illicit activity that's been happening to date.

00:31:31
Speaker 3: Well, he's just going to pass on that cost to the consumer. Also, they used our favorite.

00:31:39
Speaker 1: Word, accountability, accountability, accountability.

00:31:42
Speaker 7: Janicki Seva NBC seven.

00:31:46
Speaker 6: According to the complaint, the owner received a permit in twenty twelve, and back in twenty fifteen, San Diego police identified prostitution activity there twenty fifteen.

00:31:58
Speaker 2: That was eleven years ago.

00:32:00
Speaker 1: I wonder how many of these guys are getting medicare to pay for these massages.

00:32:06
Speaker 3: There you go, another feckless attempt for a city attorney to hold accountable a purveyor of prostitution in the state of California, all under the guise of a massage parlor.

00:32:20
Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two 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 ear monitoring the mailbag. Sean writes in at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. Osaka Massage has been providing those extra services since I was a young lad thirty five plus years ago, and the IRS should be getting involved. Those girls are probably making a thousand bucks a day. Let's go to Anthony listening online in Mississippi. Anthony.

00:32:59
Speaker 5: Hello, Thank you John Anne Randy for taking the call. Let me tell you our son. My wife and I had I have a son, but when he was two years old in nineteen ninety nine, we ran across the Hooked on Phonics program, which was not available online, and so we got the program. We sat with our son and by the time he started elementary school and he was reading clear, perfect English at his age, and even the kindergarten teachers were surprised and they asked us what did we do. We told him the very thing I'm saying now, that we ran across the houton Phonics program, and so he has been well at that point he when by the time he started school, he was two grade levels above kindergarten in his reading. So that program, I don't know why California is so late in getting into that. But and then also my wife and I we homeschooled our son, but that program is very successful. And let me also mention I was born and raised in California, but my wife and I now live here in Mississippi. We've been here about five years now, and I'm glad to hear Mississippi is kind of coming along.

00:34:49
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you so much for the call. Glad to hear about the success that your child experienced learning to read through phonics. It clearly works. It's working in Mississippi, should be doing it here in California too. All right, it's time to reopen the California Crime Blodder.

00:35:07
Speaker 2: It's happened yet again.

00:35:08
Speaker 1: This wow, Wow, what's not new? Thunk thum thum dunk, dund thumb thunk dunk rereads the Califonia Crime Blodder with jun and this edition takes us to the Central Valley, where.

00:35:23
Speaker 3: A home improvement store has been vandalized and burglarized more times than the owners can count For more, here's ABC thirty Action News in Fresno tonight.

00:35:34
Speaker 7: Shattered Storefronts and Dreams.

00:35:37
Speaker 11: A Northeast Fresno business says vandals continue to damage their building and others nearby. Now the frustrated staff is speaking out, hoping to get help to make the crimes stop. Thanks for joining us tonight for Action News Live at six.

00:35:51
Speaker 7: I'm Margo Kenn and.

00:35:52
Speaker 12: I'm more on Armstrong. Our newest Action News reporter, Danielle Brooke North spoke with the store manager of Home Crafters, Spas and Barbecue on Herndon near Blackstone. She shows us the latest damage and I it was all taking a tool in more waste than one.

00:36:09
Speaker 13: At five am, our alarm company contacted us and stated our alarm was showing glass breakage. So honestly, we felt like, here we go again.

00:36:24
Speaker 1: It's happened yet again.

00:36:27
Speaker 14: Now take a look. You can see the window here, there's the shot of glass, the hole right where the rock went through. And they say this is the third time they've experienced this type of vandalism in the last twelve months.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: Three rocks in a year.

00:36:40
Speaker 1: That's a lot of rocks in.

00:36:41
Speaker 14: The last twelve months.

00:36:43
Speaker 13: Our fit time in the last eighteen nineteen months, and then just a couple of years ago, a car drove through our front door just to get a grill and leave.

00:36:54
Speaker 1: Hey, Marge, there's a car inside the building.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: Again, somebody crashed into this building with a car to steal a grill.

00:37:06
Speaker 1: Maybe they were hungry.

00:37:08
Speaker 14: Home Crafters, Spas and Barbecue store manager Terry Joy says they're not the only store that's been targeted. She says it's been an issue for several nearby businesses.

00:37:18
Speaker 6: Well.

00:37:18
Speaker 13: In this shopping center, we have been hit often. Colorado Grill has been hit often, and the beauty supply store next door has been hit often.

00:37:29
Speaker 2: Everyone's getting hit.

00:37:34
Speaker 1: Maybe it's time to get out of the neighborhood.

00:37:36
Speaker 14: Eighty C thirty has reported on similar incidents at neighboring business Colorado Growth, the latest one just weeks ago. The restaurant's owner telling Action News their windows and doors have been smashed about twenty times in the last five years.

00:37:53
Speaker 2: It's like once a quarter.

00:37:56
Speaker 1: How do you operate a business like that if you get vandalized that often.

00:38:01
Speaker 13: We believe it's a lot of the homeless, because there is a huge group of homeless around and they're in front of our stores. They sleep in front of our stores, and nothing's being done about it.

00:38:14
Speaker 14: Terry says, there's not only the concern of costly repair.

00:38:17
Speaker 3: I thought Fresno didn't put up with that. What happened Fresnow dropping the ball?

00:38:22
Speaker 14: Terry says, there's not only the concern of costly repairs.

00:38:25
Speaker 13: Right now with these boarded windows, we're looking at about eighty grand.

00:38:29
Speaker 14: But also the impact on customer safety in the image the stores worked hard to build over the past four decades.

00:38:36
Speaker 13: You know, we strive to be a high end, reputable place to visit, and it's not appearing. So when you walk up and there's boards in the window, what a mess.

00:38:53
Speaker 1: Poor business owners. But that's life in California in twenty twenty six.