The Bill Handel Show

(March 27, 2025)
Amy King joins Chris Merrill, who is filling in for Bill while he is on vacation, for Handel on the News. Trump announces new auto tariffs in major trade war escalation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelan criminals are being held. HHS scraps studies of vaccines and treatments for future pandemics. LA County Sheriff’s Department to re-test some 4,000 DNA samples amid concerns about potentially incomplete results.

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(March 26, 2025)
The Atlantic posts the 'attack plans' that were shared on the Signal app proving these were ,meant to be highly classifed. Americans are increasingly anxious about their financial prospects, with a closely watched gauge of consumer confidence slumping to a 12-year low amid growing concerns about tariffs and inflation. A light blue swirl puzzled skywatchers from Britain to Croatia this week. One person said it looked “like seeing a portal open above us.”

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(March 26, 2025)
Chris Merril is in for Bill while he is out on vacation.  Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty again in Los Angeles, undoing one of the signature policies of his predecessor, George Gascón. Four Southern states rank in the top five nationally for their dependence on federal dollars, according to a new report. And a very northern state, Alaska, is the most “federally dependent” in the union, according to WalletHub. Southern states rank second through fifth: Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina. Amid President Trump’s push to take over the world’s largest island, the administration says it is sending the vice president to visit a military base there. Billions of dollars are potentially on the line for fire victims. For lawyers, their typical one-third cut of any future settlement could be enormous.

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(March 26, 2025)
Amy King joins Chris Merril who is filling in for Bill for Handel on the News. Mike Walz claims ‘fill responsibility; for Signal chat group leaked to journalist. Trump stands by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, saying he’s ‘learned a lesson.’ D.A Hochman officially brings death penalty back to Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass, City Council members request nearly $2BIL from state for budget help. Trump executive order boosts proof of citizenship requirements for voting in federal elections.

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(March 25, 2025)
Chris Merrill fills in for Bill this week. KTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about what the Signal app is. The Trump administration's Signal fiasco has given Democrats an unexpected shot to go on offense, with a pair of hearings in the next two days. When social media company Meta sued to have a former employee's memoir pulled off the shelves, they thought it would stop people from reading the book. But it's done quite the opposite. "Careless People" is a memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook for seven years, becoming the director of global public policy. The book is highly critical of the organization and its leaders Mark Zuckerberg and then-CEO Sheryl Sandberg.

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(March 25, 2025)
Trump Administration accidentally included reporter in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling. With the release of its fourth and final round of color-coded hazard maps this morning, California’s firefighting agency is showing just how much of the state is prone to wildfire — and how much that computationally-modeled danger zone has grown since the state issued its last round of local hazard maps more than a decade ago. A federal judge refused Monday to withdraw his block on President Donald Trump’s deportation flights of alleged members of Venezuela’s crime gang Tren de Araragua under the Alien Enemies Act. If you’re one of the 15 million people who shared your DNA with 23andMe, it’s time to delete your data.

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(March 25, 2025) 
Amy King and joins Chris Merrill who is hosting Handel on the News all week. Trump’s national security adviser added a journalist to text chat on highly sensitive Yemen strike plans. Live Nation settles lawsuit over claims it misled investors about legal risks. US Postal Service head DeJoy resigns. Yosemite National Park summer reservations open after delay. Trump says any country buying Venezuelan oil will face a 25% tariff. Los Angeles rental market faces increased competition.

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(March 24, 2025)
Chris Merrill fills in for Bill this week. As some Eaton residents are running out of money to stay in temporary housing, they are returning to their unsafe living conditions The Internal Revenue Service is nearing an agreement to allow immigration officials to use tax data to confirm the names and addresses of people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to four people familiar with the matter, culminating weeks of negotiations over using the tax system to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. An opening date has not been announced, but Tesla’s all-night diner, theater and charging station is clearly on its way. Which means that the company’s leader, Elon Musk, is about to enter the hospitality business. American women have never been this resigned to staying single. They are responding to major demographic shifts, including huge and growing gender gaps in economic and educational attainment, political affiliation and beliefs about what a family should look like.

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(March 25, 2025)
Chris Merrill fills in for Bill this week. The parents of the one person in Texas who has died during the current measles outbreak are standing by their decision not to vaccinate their late daughter or her four siblings. In an interview posted on the website of the Children’s Health Defense, the un-named mother and father insisted that measles is “good for the body” by reinforcing its defenses. President Donald Trump kicked off the process of dismantling the Department of Education by signing an executive order on Thursday. Under the proposal, initiated by council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, audience members could be removed from meetings — or banned from attending future ones — for repeatedly uttering the racial slur known as the N-word or the sexist vulgarity known as the C-word. Buy-now-pay-later loans are often used to spread out interest-free payments for expensive purchases such as smartphones, furniture or appliances. Now hungry consumers can add another option to that list: food.

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(March 24, 2025)
Amy King and joins Chris Merrill who is hosting Handel on the News all week. First deportation flight lands in Venezuela from US, after deal to resume repatriations. Chuck Schumer rejects call to step down as Senate Democratic Leader. Canada calls snap election for April 28. US looks to make headway on Trump’s ceasefire hopes as Russia talks open in Saudi Arabia. California looks to eliminate gas tax, replace with road charge program.

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