It's possible that a limit the cap would only be for a few years after Washington I mean Kate's just a. Great. Talk Radio 790 k b c news live in local at 11 o 2 I'm Laurie Kellman well in the 1st major effort to crack down on vaporing here in Los Angeles l.a. City attorney Mike Deora says to ease cigarette companies have agreed to pay $6.00 figure settlements the law also would hear to stricter regulations to prevent marketing their vaporing products to kids big tobacco succeeded in hooking generations on traditional cigarettes this time it's the industry's shiny new object to the east cigarette Barron Hilton whose name you may know the hotel mogul and philanthropist to lead the Hilton hotel chain has died here in l.a. Was 91 he had succeeded his father Conrad Hilton as president and chief executive officer of Hilton Hotels Corp 790 k.v. Ford dog play another one against the Rockies at home tonight Angels are in Houston against the Astros this afternoon again 798 so now whether Alex summer on a warm sunny very morning this weekend morning today on my evening for tomorrow partly cloudy young we're going to be and then Monday the 1st day of fall a little cooler 79 now in Woodland Hills 77 in Laguna Hills and 78 degrees downtown to your latest p.c. Katie dependable traffic right now earlier Sigler it all over with in the San Fernando Valley was one of one of with an avenue of call big rig cleared out of the right hand lane no more back up from the North Hollywood Freeway split But up ahead the West want to one is a little flow from event like Boulevard down to the White Oak eastbound part of the want to one and it's often are going from the photo Avenue to the north Hollywood Freeway flip another said alert involving the big rig is over the Adams Boulevard off Route $110.00 more that was blocked because of a big rig crash that accident has been cleared away. However the 110 north that heading to downtown l.a. Your fall from the 15 up to the 4 level interchange next report comes your way at 12 noon I'm Michael s.a.m. 790 k.v. Think this show furnished by. This is Jim pins of Justice presented by. The line did you know and this is the program that takes you behind the scenes with those who make the laws and those who protect your rights through the rule of law your host today our attorney Tom Gerardi and attorney Robert Finnerty. He is the founding partner of the law firm of dragoon Keyes known for passionate litigation of corporate giants on behalf of aggrieved individuals he is a member of the California State Bar trial lawyer Hall of Fame and is widely regarded by his peers as one of the nation's top trial lawyers joining him today as our guest host Robert finity he has been chosen as a Los Angeles Magazine Southern California Super Lawyer many years running and they are champions of justice for the little guy Each week we bring you this informative and entertaining hour bringing clarity to the headline generating legal challenges of the day and boy are we going to talk about headlines today because it is time for our semi annual congressional update on the state of our government and to help us do that today we are happy to welcome u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff Adam Schiff is the u.s. Representative for California's 28th congressional district he has served in Congress since 2001 he is a member of the Democratic Party he has become an influential voice for his party in the House of Representatives on foreign policy and national security issues. He serves as ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence He previously served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and he has become a leading advocate of campaign finance reform and freedom of the press Tom hi everybody hey thanks for joining this it's very nice of you to listen a little bit on the weekends to some nice people Ok David you know. I don't care if you're a Democrat I don't care if you're Republican this person really represents the people you know I might I might interject here yes we are talking to a California congressman but really your vote as a congressman counts for every citizen in this country because the votes that you cast do affect everyone in one way or another so whether you're listening California or in Washington d.c. What we talk about today will impact you you know. This man Stanford University. Then Harvard Law School Holy Toledo Dave Dino and then you can imagine all the opportunities that would be open to somebody like this and in the private world here you have this person who's off the charts and intelligence and understanding and legal ability and lo and behold this terrific fellow decided you know what that of doing that I think I'll do this and I think I'll give back. And lo and behold for now 10 years 15 years this wonderful human being has served the people of California and served the nation by being by being in Congress and he doesn't have the same rhetoric that some of the people in Congress have yelling and screaming in pounding the table he does things in the persuasion way of a real lawyer quiet behind the scenes no emotion the right thing to do etc honest to goodness I don't know of anybody who represents us who does a better job. At trying to trying to figure out the right things to do you know here he's been involved in national security privacy etc He just got a new appointment that will have him talk about in a 2nd but I tell you this Congressman Adam Schiff I think the world diffusion know and for you to have dedicated so much of your life to trying to make sure mine is better is really great thanks for coming Tom thank you for inviting me it's wonderful to be back on your show and thank you for those really nice comments I feel like I probably should just stop right here and thank you instead of the broadcast because after that action like that I'm going to spend the rest of my career trying to live up to your fine words so thank you very much really a delight to be back with you what job do you have in the House the ranking Democrat House Intelligence Committee and it's a great responsibility and given all that's going on around the world and the challenges that we face with ISIS the continuing challenges with al Qaeda new challenges from Russia trying to remake remake the map in Europe. The strength of China it's really an important time for our nation to make sure that its intelligence capabilities are robust and that we're. Talking to each other agencies or talking to each other at the same time there are really unprecedented challenges in making sure that we meet the privacy expectations of the American people as well as people around the world and drawing this line between privacy and security has gotten increasingly difficult and complicated so it's a very challenging post. To have a responsibility and it keeps me well occupied. You you think there's some problems out there with intelligence and. Well we had a lot of problems with Teligent in the past and of course probably the seminal one of the last. Several decades were was the intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq but we have continuing intelligence challenges we're very reliant on intelligence to know what the Russians are up to and this can be with us for quite a long time so it's an important time in the intelligence world Bob. You mentioned separating fact from fiction fiction how do you get the public to being gauged in that. Well that's really I think critical and I think you make an excellent point which is in the intelligence arena we try to as we've been saying separate fact from fiction about what's happening around the world what threats are post the United States but the same time we're having a vigorous debate at home about how to make sure that in our quest to protect the country we're not undermining some of the values of the country by doing away with our privacy or of our civil liberties and in that respect it's also very important to separate fact from fiction to be able to talk candidly with American people about what we're doing about what we're not doing you know others I want to mention because they they don't get singled out for praise because we can identify them is there are thousands and thousands of people working the telegenic community many of them are working in dangerous places with no no safety net and they don't get acknowledged but they do tremendous work and I get to see that every day it's one of the most gratifying gratified parts of working on the code it's quickly let's go back a little bit here you were. This big time brilliant student the Stanford stuff the Harvard stuff all that Ok and you come out in here you could've done anything you wanted to do absolutely positively without a doubt had a large firm the way you're sore to kill it very easy for you to be convincing jurors of you the right side to go and so forth. How come you've got into this. Same question my parents of ask me over the years. Well I love the work I do I feel so lucky to do it and I love being a prosecutor in the u.s. Attorney's office it was a fabulous job and a great people to work with I love my time in the private sector as well. But. You know I feel I'm making a positive difference for my constituents it's deeply gratifying it's intensely interesting David Dave and I were talking earlier about the cut the commonality and in our jobs of every day being different every day being interesting and I just really love the opportunity to serve for your on a lot of committees aren't you you you know what we've had folks like you on this show before and it didn't take us nears long to introduce them. Right Dave you know I'm not good you know if this is true and all these committees that you're on I mean massively important stuff. You know they're interesting committees and. I I suspect that when I'm in Congress a little longer I may discover that less is more that I would be better off with fewer assignments setting day but at the moment I'm very much enjoying the diversity of the challenges the Intelligence Committee in particular. Is one where you could spend your entire day every day every week and still not feel like you're devoting enough time to it. And that the only downside of it I mean it's a I think a very important committee in terms of our national security the only downside of it is you can't tell your constituents much about what you're doing so from a constituent point of view it's not a great assignment but but it is an intensely challenging and I think important what you were listening to Jim just this week Tom druggy in bomb finity in our guest today helping us with our congressional update on the. 8 of our government is us Congressman Adam Schiff. And we'll be back with more in just a moment here as you listen to Talk Radio 790 days a rooster. You're in charge of hiring and indeed has solutions like company pages where you can get people excited about working for you and we give you this toy monkey which will bang it symbols when the right resume appear. Because there is no monkey. 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And this is a cow a cow whose milk became everyone's favorite cheese at the craft fair but she's only last so long the impression of small business makes needs to last much longer and now Vistaprint is introducing free shipping on all business cards in any quantity choose from hundreds of fresh designs tailored to your type of company or upload your own the choice is yours the time is now out for a limited time only get free shipping on all business cards in any quantity with promo code 3131 that's promo code 3131 it vistaprint dot com Oh now. Welcome back champions of justice with Tom drafty and Bob Finnerty our guest today giving us our semiannual congressional update on the state of our government is us Congressman Adam Schiff. What do we really know about ISIS in that I mean what do we know about them about who they really are and about what their ideology really is when we see news stories about them it can appear at times that they're extremely organized it can appear at other times that they're really nothing more than glorified gangs who have pasted some sort of a religious ideology on their actions to excuse those what do we know about them what is their ideology and how important for us to really know them well it's very important that we understand who they are what they're about what their ideology is because key to defeating them is not just a feeling that militarily but also defeating them on the ideological battle front we know a lot about them they are very ideology driven it's a. Radical perversion of Islam that they subscribe to that considers that anyone that doesn't worship in the way they do including fellow Muslims to be apostates that are unworthy of continued life so it's a Sunni. Bastardization of Islam and so they massacre Shiite. Muslims along with Christians and anyone else that doesn't subscribe to their. Tyrannical view they want to establish a caliphate Islam ruled theocracy and they call themselves a state so you can define a lot about their intentions by. By their publications of which she very prolific and and I think that's part of the key to defeating them as exposing what they are and who they are working with the leaders in the in the Gulf and in the Arab world and the Muslim world to get them to speak out against this this. Perversion of Islam that's not something that we have a lot of credibility to speak about but the Muslim nations they really need to lead the ideological fight. Now I have to say that when you watch the behavior of ISIS and how they glorify violence part of it is strategic part of the reason why they were able to overrun Ramadi for example is they so terrified people that people know if they lose to ISIS they won't be captured taken prisoner they'll be beheaded they'll be tortured they'll be burned alive in a cage like that or a Jordanian pilot and that that terror has a useful tactical advantage in Cowing its adversaries but at the same time there is a. Such a glorification of the violence that it really comes across like a death cult and I think part of it really is a death cult but we shouldn't I think underestimate the kind of strategic thinking of the military capabilities of ISIS. And write them off as merely a death cult because they're more than a death cult of though that certainly seems to be part and parcel of who they are bump Ok so this got to be us a good job and world I'm sitting here listening to thinking I don't know if I'd be able to go to sleep at night knowing you all that you know well I tell you there's a lot going on around the world which would keep you up at night but I think we do have to put things in perspective and one of the perspectives I try to keep is we have faced far greater challenges than this in our past the challenges that we faced during World War 2 were on a level that far exceeds anything that we're facing even with the horrors of ISIS and in terms of the United States and our homeland we've done a pretty good job in protecting the country we haven't had a recurrence thank god of 911 we have dramatically reduce the the ability. Of course al Qaeda to attack us on a scale like we saw on $911.00 and it's still far more dangerous to get on the. The 110 freeway or the 4 or 5 in Los Angeles or get on the beltway or the parkway around d.c. Or countless other arteries around the country still far more dangerous than any risk that Americans face from terrorism so we need to put in perspective we don't want to change how we live here we want to maintain our freedoms and our privacy. Even though with a 24 hour news cycle and being bombarded by these barbaric stories of ISIS it would lead you are wise to despair I think this is not an insurmountable challenge that we have and they will be defeated Hey Dave do you know he's really something that me I'm not kidding you I mean this man. A little bit more articulate than some of the guess we've had he explains things pretty well and here he as you know devoted his whole life to trying to help us to make sure that you know things are balanced and what's the right thing to do and so on you know it's really it's really an honor I am a great fan of his but I think everyone who has ever been in contact with him is a great fan of his and to be back there to try to do things like this which are so important we're not turning our back on let terrorism prevail we're not turning our back on yes you can never be searched and so forth but we need a balance we have to do the right thing Ok I got to turn off of this just a minute Congressman you have a nice way about you. You're no one for that in terms of the way in which you persuade you know in talking to your colleagues. Who I mentioned you quite frequently they say you know. He Fenner the fairway always has the way to make us go a little bit down his path and at the end of it we didn't even realize he did it somebody said that about you Congressman I'm not kidding you I met either and so you like your job. I really do like my job and you know it's it's hard getting involved in the political field. I ran a couple times on successfully before I was fortunate enough to to succeed and you hope when you work that hard for something that you enjoy it when you get there and I do. It. It can be a struggle it's not fun being in the minority but the way I look at it when you're in the majority they range of what you can do is about $180.00 degrees wide when you're the minority it may only be about $45.00 degrees wide but within those $45.00 degrees are still a lot you can get done. And part of what it takes to get things done is a skill that I learned in the courtroom and one that I'm sure is very familiar to 2 accomplished attorneys like you and that is you fight your fight in the courtroom you make the best arguments you can and when the case is over the case is over and you go out you have a beer with the other side and you don't make it personal you don't make it at hominum you fight over the issues that you care about but you live to fight another day and I always try to remember that someone who was my adversary on Issue one day may be my ally on an issue the next as long as I don't burn that bridge quick question you've got these 2 attorneys on the son of you they're well known across the country and this whole issue of trial attorneys is one that enters politics from time to time and usually it is illustrated with some sort of an outrageous case. For those of you sitting in Congress. In seeing with these guys do where they actually do represent those who have been harmed in some way by a product or by a drug that was prematurely released to the market what's your perspective on that when you see people like this and of course I put you right between the 2 of them well in my perspective as I read a great many people over the years who have suffered a terrible injuries and and seen because they haven't touched my office often seeking help. They're trying to address their injuries or trying to get adequate treatment or trying to get help and they're often fighting against a behemoth that is simply wearing them down. And I see the correspondence I have with some of these very large companies as they try to get redress I see the way that they're given such short shrift and it is you know it is David and Goliath when you're coming up against the huge entity and seeking some form of fair treatment you know I have great respect for those that will step in and and represent them and be their voice and that's what these gentlemen do you know it's hard in having this Washington job having this district out here so you got to be relating to you know your constituents out here let them know that you're thinking about him but then you've got this massive job in Washington you know just. Judiciary intelligence and all those things it appears you are pretty good at it you know it's very hard that way I always say as much as I love about my job there are 3 things I don't like. I don't like being away from my family which if you have a office on both coasts there's just no way you can avoid it. I don't like raising money and I don't like wearing a suit and tie. If I could somehow avoid those 3. Things that would be perfect but but it is hard and I find each year as I get older and the wear and tear of the jetlag takes more out of me I can now try to avoid the red eye whenever possible because it will take me a whole week to recover from that you were listening to champions of justice with Tom Girardi and Bob Finnerty and this year's semiannual congressional update on the state of your government today we are delighted to welcome u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff and Dave do you know we've got a lot to cover so stick around to listen to Talk Radio 792 a.b.c. . 7 going to. Talk Radio 790 k.b. C news live in local Lyme Laurie Kellman an innocent bystander is expected to survive a gunshot wound suffered when he was caught in the middle of a road rage confrontation between 2 drivers I'm on a bellow around 10 last night the victim was shot in front of the best star in it 7533 Telegraph Well if you're looking for something to do this weekend you may want to check this out lots of museums across the southland offering free admission today all part of Smithsonian magazine's 15th annual Museum Day and you may want to look skyward tomorrow night between 6 and 7 for 20 minutes the u.s. Navy's elite Blue Angels flight team will zoom across the l.a. Skyline as part of a city orientation tour 798 b.c. So now weather for this last official weekend of summer sunny and warm today I have 84 only a brisk 51 right now in Sun Valley 75 in long 79 degrees downtown I'm Laurie Kellman cave Easynews right now Doctors Without Borders medic. 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Coverage gets underway at 10 30 am with Countdown to kick off right here on your 4 Trojans football am 7000000 b.j. A.b.c. . We're back with more of champions of justice with our very special guest giving us our summary and you will congressional update on the state of our government u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff your host Tom Gerardi and Bob Finnerty Congressman we want to go back in history to your time in serving here in California your time as u.s. Attorney here in Los Angeles and prosecuting the 1st f.b.i. Agent ever to me and I did for espionage What's that story well I was assistant u.s. Attorney and. Richard Miller was an f.b.i. Agent for many years and he was on the counter intelligence squad in other words he was as many of our f.b.i. Agents are our eyes and ears on foreign spies operating the United States and he was seduced by an attractive Soviet k.g.b. Agent named. Cova it was the classic sex for secrets case Wow And it was a very tough case to prosecute though because. Ultimately the f.b.i. Found out that he was meeting with Svetlana spent a lot of was an asset of the f.b.i. He she was supposedly a source for the f.b.i. But in fact she had turned Miller and he was becoming a source for the Soviets I mean she was a classic double agent she was and what what made it a challenge to prosecutors the f.b.i. When they learned that Miller had been meeting with her secretly started surveilling Miller and one of the things you're trying to do as an f.b.i. Agent is recognize when you're. So Miller an f.b.i. Agent recognizes he's being followed by other f.b.i. Agents and before he can be arrested he goes into his supervisor's office and basically sets out his defense and says the k.g.b. Think they have recruited me as a spy but in fact it's a double agent scenario and I'm really spying on them so I know this is not been approved by Washington and I've been doing this you know in an unauthorized way but I'm really have set myself up as a spy on them and I made a challenge to prosecute but ultimately we had the evidence he was convicted bomber there are issues that are on the table of concern force how is our government you know really working a good source here. Clearly Adams agree member of our Congress. What I want to know is how do we get the young people back how do we get them reengage so that this is primary focus for them I have 2 young children. Voting age now but I find they and their friends aren't as interested as we were when we were growing up you know but I think there's a lot to that and unfortunately I think just how negative campaigns have gotten and how negative the media coverage of government has become is really deterred young people from wanting anything to do with and who can blame them things have gotten so bitterly partisan and negative and so ad hominem you can't disagree with someone and they without ascribing the most malicious motives to them it is really turned young people off and unfortunate while it's easier to it's easy to diagnose the problem and why young people have been turned off from politics prescribing the remedy is much more difficult a lot of things are contributing to this the way we finance our campaigns is contributing to it because it's now you know the polarizing the the process you have these. Groups that go after not only people from the other party but people from their own party if they're not sufficiently pure compromise has become a really bad word I've never seen a situation where compromise was viewed so negatively it's viewed as a capitulation. A lack of conviction but frankly if you don't have compromise in a system which checks and balances it just doesn't work and the biggest concern I have been we've been covering a lot of train today is the dysfunction in our government really threatens the ability of the United States to maintain its leadership position in the world. And I'm a big believer in something Bill Clinton once said and that is there's nothing wrong in America that can't be fixed by what's right in America we still have such tremendous advantages viz a viz the rest of the world in terms of talented people that come from all over the world that have enriched this country we have great natural resources we have great history and devotion to democratic institutions there's no reason for the United States not to lead another generation in many generations to come except we have this real problem with our governance right now we have to find a way to get past that and it's really different intellectually we had our own views of things but to get along to get together to you know come to reasonable compromises with the with the key and I don't see too much of that going on. As your job location it's just it is really quite sad I think one of things that has benefited me and it's one of the reasons to be a great member of Congress is when you're an attorney and you've tried cases in court you understand that you go into the courtroom you fight it out and when the case is over the case is over and your opposing counsel is not your enemy and you go out you have a beer you talk about your war stories from the trial and you live. To fight another day and someone who is your your opponent your adversary counsel in one case may be your co-counsel in another and you just don't want to burn those bridges I was a lot clerk for Matt Byrne wonderful wonderful man great federal judge and he always used to say that the street out in front of the courthouse was a 2 way street and what he meant by that is. That you know you may be going down the street one way one day but you may need to come back the other and you don't want to burn your bridges with opposing counsel and you know I've really thought about that over the years and I've had some you know very tough fights legislatively with other members of Congress but I try never to make it personal and some of those same members who were my you know most vehement opponents on the bill became my strongest allies on another bill and had I burned down that relationship that never would have been the case and. As much as people I know don't like electing lawyers these days there are certain skills in terms of depersonalizing the conflict and keeping it professional as well as understanding how laws will be interpreted by the courts that really come in handy in Congress. Looking at the house of Congress in this light in this perspective reminds me very much of the courtroom you have the Democrats who are on one side of the aisle you have the Republicans on the other side of the aisle we the public are the client what would happen in a courtroom if the 2 counsels on the 2 different sides of the aisle were contentious contentious with each other and hated each other what would happen to the benefit to the client well sometimes the contentiousness helps sometimes it's very persuasive. You know think about you and your wife every once in a while man you know it's very persuasive I think the trick is you can't it can't be that way all the time you know so generally speaking I mean if you and Bill Campbell in the old days in California everything always worked easy you know and then people would work things out a little bit this is much harder and you know what you just said though gives us a pretty good idea of how important it is for a party to be in charge of to have control of say the house because if that's the voting postures that take place and it seems to me whoever has the majority it's pretty darn important and if you don't have the majority you know it's not so hot right that's exactly right a majority the majority really runs the house unlike the Senate where you have a filibuster you have a strong minority. Power in the house it's all about the majority and what you know one thing that has changed and this gets back to the Tip O'Neill illustration only had a large majority in the house and no one enjoys a large majority in the house any more it's always going you know fairly narrowly divided which means both parties either feel that the very next election is the one where they can lose the majority or gain it and that makes it very difficult to compromise because if you compromise and get things done if you are the party out of power it's hard to make the argument why the bums may be thrown out. And I don't know how to get beyond that dynamic but but David you point out it's not good for the client if. If their interest it sacrificed because of the animosity of the parties and there's a lot of contention in the air on both sides it seems that you know generally you know going back to your days in the California legislature. I think everybody got along better don't you you know people did get along better and I'm told you know when I arrived in the state legislature in 1906 they they were told me Boy things used to be a lot better 10 or 20 years ago and I think that was true actually I don't think it's just that each generation thinks it was better I think it was better. Members I think were less ideological they knew each other personally. And it but it was a rude shock going from the legislature to the Congress where things were much more partisan and much more ad hominum members just didn't like each other very much and and I remember going from the Senate Judiciary Committee in California where I was the chair to the House Judiciary Committee where I was the most junior member and. And one of the differences was. Both stylistic and substantive when I went to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee I was voted last and we voted now for better order except the chair and I could go 1st or last night just to go last because I I didn't want to necessarily tell all the members how I wanted the build to turn out I wanted to have a real debate and I wanted to have the merits of it discussed that I want to have every good amendment deliberate upon and then I get to the House Judiciary Committee and the Democrats are assigned seats on one side of the committee Republicans are assigned seats on the other and you vote by committee and by party and the 1st vote is always a yes vote because if the ranking member of the majority wasn't for it the bill would get hurt and then you have the least you know the next less senior member of vote and then going down to the most junior member of that of that party and then it jumps to the senior member of the opposite party and if they vote the other way then you haven't you know no no no no no no no coming around to the most junior member and I remember the 1st time I voted contrary to all the votes before me my ranking member almost. Leapt out of their seat. Ok so you can you see me after school you know that they're so it is structured to be partisan and. It's unfortunate because a lot of the work in Congress really should be not ideological nonpartisan they're really not partisan issues. Many issues are and and it's perfectly appropriate to have a vigorous debate about issues but not many issues aren't And and I there is an excessive partisanship you are listening to champions of justice with Tom drafty and finity our guest today is providing our semiannual congressional update on the state of our government and you're hearing some of the both the pros and cons of that he is us Congressman Adam Schiff and Dave do you know we still have more to cover as you listen to Talk Radio 790 k. A.b.c. . 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We're back for our final segment of today's champions of justice our special guest is u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff giving us our semiannual congressional update on the state of our government your host our Tom Gerardi and Bob Finnerty we want to move on to some other issues and one of the issues that is going to be more and more in the forefront of our lives is that of elections and you are a very strong proponent for reforming campaign finances and election finances can you give us perhaps a in a nutshell an overview of your view on that and what you see the problem being and what you would like to see as a solution well I have kind of a unique introduction to the issue when I was a candidate for Congress ran back in 2000. In what became the most expensive race for the House in history and it held that accolade if that's what it is for the 10 years that followed at that time back in 2000 my opponent raised about 6 point $8000000.00 for a House race we raised about $4300000.00 and there were about $5000000.00 independent expenditures and that was an astounding some at the time. And the part of the spending that concerned me the most frankly were those 5000000 independent expenditures they were soft money expenditures and often the groups that were spending that money didn't have to disclose who they were I remember driving down the freeway listening to radio about 3 weeks before the election and a very pleasant woman's voice came on the radio and said. My father belong to the same firm for 40 years our members forbade him he had great health care coverage with this creep with complete prescription drug coverage now the government wants to take it away from him and put him in a government run h.m.o. Call Adam Schiff and tell him to stop scaring seniors almost drove off the road and it was on the radio so often I would push the button to say it would be on another station and people didn't use broadcast radio in congressional races in California because it was so expensive you'd reach millions of people when the district only had hundreds of thousands of people but that was in that case funded by the pharmaceutical industry and but the ad said you know basically funded by Citizens for a better tomorrow and they didn't have to disclose who they were and it meant that that I lost control of my message because their ads in full favor of me as well as ads against me. And that problem has gotten so much worse now the very 1st bill I co-sponsored I got to Congress was McCain Feingold we passed that bill by a very narrow road what's with that bill that will try to end soft money expenditures like that that. Was ubiquitous on the radio because those those ads and that expenditure is taking place all over the country but campaign finance reform is one of those things where it never ends you stop one thing and there we stop stop one expenditures and they find a new way around it and unfortunately Supreme Court really kind of blew all the doors off the barn in Citizens United and basically allowed companies to spend unlimited amounts of money and often anonymously and that's just a I think a tremendous disservice. To the country and to our democracy because now you have these unlimited expenditures no accountability and I think there are a couple really important things we need to do one is something called the Disclose Act which would require companies to disclose when they're making these expenditures so that people can evaluate whether they want to accept what's being said or not at least they know where the ad is coming from you might remember a few years ago target company. Sponsored or made a contribution to an anti-gay marriage initiative in Minnesota well they did in a way where it was public and customers of target rose up and said hey this is not why we shop at Target to support the social agenda if that's where you're coming from We'll take our business elsewhere and you can imagine the board of directors meeting at Target saying who is the genius that got us involved this ballot measure that's not what we're about and so they made an equal contribution to the other side and they said Ok we're done. That transparency had an effect and I think we ought to have that same transparency for all corporate expenditures The other thing though that may be necessary ultimately is to amend the Constitution in light of decisions like Citizens United that may be necessary now to to require and be able to put limits on expenditures to me it's insane that we have a system where. One can be limited to let's say a $2700.00 contribution to a presidential candidate if they make a contribution to regularly but can spend $27000000.00 on that same candidate for the same ad as long as they don't send the money to the campaign that makes no sense whatsoever it makes sense to only 5 people in the country but regrettably those 5 are on the Supreme Court. You know what we're supposed to have a country here the vote of the people supposed to put us in play not the Buddha money. Yes and a problem with this never in the flood of resources and now you see just individuals who will be major players in the presidential race but just by dint of how much money they're going to put into the race and that's really I think a very grave danger to our democracy that is the voice of our guest u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff and this is our semiannual congressional update on the state government your host is Tom Gerardi and vanity Bob you just touched on something that is very near and dear to my heart and that's the concept of when we 1st hear about somebody running for office the very 1st thing we hear about them is not what their positions are but how much money the very least. How can that be the most important factor. Well you know it's it's a very sad reality that many campaigns are so heavily influenced if not determined by fundraising efforts and it's often the 1st thing that the press looks at to determine is someone viable not what's their experience not what's their background not what do they stand for but how much money have they raised I learned that lesson in my very 1st campaign it was a tell you a painful lesson I ran for the state assembly in an open seat where there were about 14 candidates I ended up coming in 10th and and that kind of chilling realization was in your when you looked at the 14 candidates all 14 of us pretty much finished in the order of our fundraising now it made a certain sense because none of us really know those who had a bigger budget to get out their name and their message and it of doing better but that's a kind of a painful lesson about our democracy that so often it depends on the extent of fundraising and I think there just has to be a better way and we need to find a way to get away from the dominance of financial support and campaigns you know you've been a big proponent of helping the vets. And I think our country has let the vets down especially in the health care arena etc You know the statistics there are 5000 homeless vets in Los Angeles alone a 1000 of them are women and these young people who've are there devoting their lives to protect us come back very often hurt mentally don't have the same capacities and abilities and very difficult for them even to get a job and man we're not doing much for you right Tom it's it's tragic we're not living up to the commitment we made to them when they put on the uniform and. The problem of homelessness among veterans as acute around the country where obviously we still have a long way to go there's also tremendous related problem of employment for veterans the unemployment rate for veterans is much higher than for the general population and higher among women veterans than among male veterans so we have a lot of work to do and I want to just mention your listeners that live in the 28th district if they ever have difficulty with the v.a. I hope that they will reach out and let me know and likewise those living all over the country reach out to representatives in Congress let them know both on a policy basis of the problems we need to fix but also let us be your advocates with the v.a. We do that in our office all the time we call the v.a. We stay after them to get appointments to make sure people get the medicines that they need and we can often be helpful in shepherding these cases through the v.a. So don't don't forget that you're a member of Congress is a resource in dealing with the v.a. That's pretty important Have you told some of your buddies in Congress that they have to do the same thing Oh absolutely and you know it's not only frequent for our office to get calls from people who live in other. Who can't get help from their own representative and in that case you know we try to get off to get after our colleagues to make sure that they provide the service they really need to you are listening to champions of justice with some drafty in Bonn finity our guest today is providing our semiannual congressional update on the state of our government and you're hearing some of the both the pros and cons of that he is us Congressman Adam Schiff Ok 10 years from now you're back on the show she was it's so good to see you again I haven't seen you in quite some time. What are you doing now. I remember b.s. I question that law school it's funny you should ask that I was interviewing with a law firm and. The gentleman who hear me said Where do you see yourself in 10 years and I just had this totally blank look on my face I mean I could barely think about where I saw myself a year from now let alone 10 years and I'm not sure I've got much better at it. In the line of work I mean it's very hard to predict anything and. I you know I feel lucky to do what I'm doing I would would not have imagined 10 years ago I would be doing what I am now so I really don't know do you see the job so satisfying and so enjoyable so fulfilling that you can see yourself doing this for another 10 years you know I could I could see myself doing this for some time but it's really not. Solely within my decision making ability and my constituents have much more to say about it than I do. And. So you know I I'm not trying to be coy I really. I'm trying to focus on doing the best that what I can do right now and hope for the future will take care of itself but my father told me something when I was a kid and really had no idea what I wanted to do which I've always remembered and now that I have my own kids is kind of startling to me because as much as what this what he said meant to me he doesn't remember ever saying it but what my father told me as a kid was if you're good at what you do there will always be a demand for you. Which was a very liberating idea as a kid because it meant that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I could be good at it and I could make a living. And that was a wonderful gift that my father gave me. It wasn't you have to do this otherwise you won't survive it was you can do whatever you basically set your mind to as long as you can be good at it David you know if they were all black and I'm Ok. We would even have this show because there'd be there be nothing to talk about the ability of this brilliant man to you know focus and try to get things together and so forth group of folks that isn't necessarily so motivated it's really remarkable and doubtingly he's one of the finest if not the finest person in Congress and to spend just a little bit of time with us talking about some of these issues Adam Schiff who's really nice thank you for being there. Great to be with you and thanks so much to your leisure you have been listening to champions of justice with. Finity our guest today u.s. Congressman Adam Schiff giving us our semiannual congressional update on the state of our government final thought from Confucius it came to mind as I listened to our guests today the superior man when resting in safety does not forget the danger may come when in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin when all. As orderly he does not forget the disorder may come to us his person is not endangered and his States and all their claims are preserved. That describes our guest is indeed a champion of Justice thank you for joining. The show furnished by Gerard Keane. Love is easy to express when you get it. Right. I mean you then attack your you and me and I believe. Ben Shapiro the poster was that. I'm not that guy I feel you're my favorite favorite t.v. See listen to his own show listen to these crazy committee and listen and kids President Trump via Twitter has blamed Democrats in the news media today for what he calls the Ukraine witch hunt after reportedly asking the leader of that country to look into Joe Biden and his son correspondent Matthew Chance is Ukrainian authorities are treading carefully they want to keep good relations with President Trump is the current u.s. President but the same time they're very conscious of the facts the if they would see you know in Balkan any kind of conversation like this about investigating Joe Biden it could jeopardize a relationship in the future with the United States and they just don't want to be involved in a Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy the 3rd has announced today he is running for the u.s. Senate correspondent Athena Jones reports the 38 year old is taking on the 73 year old Democratic incumbent you've got Ed Markey who has been in Congress for longer than Joe Kennedy has been alive and then you have of course Kennedy who is a Kennedy family that has it there's a lot of love for here in the city of Boston he's the grandson of course Robert f. Kennedy the son of former Congressman Joe Kennedy the 2nd approach continues into a deadly tour bus crash in southern Utah the bus carrying Chinese tourists slammed into a guardrail it flipped over caving in the roof. And smashing in one of the sides of the tour bus near Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah Utah highway police sergeant Nick street said 4 people died and this investigation is going to take time making sure that we have an accurate timeline of the bus his whereabouts what the bus driver was doing any possible incidents with faulty equipment on the the bus itself medics train people on the remote section of highway the n.t.s.b. Is being brought in to investigate and the Chinese Embassy sent interpreters to the scene to help Jeff Mackay Washington a longtime treasurer of a Milwaukee investment club convicted of bilking your friends out of more than $80000.00 has been sentenced to 9 months in federal prison the 63 year old woman stole the money from members over a 16 year period I'm and Kate's. Right . Talk Radio $790.00 k.b. Fenians live in locally 12 o 2 telling another major cleaning of sidewalk sallies parks and other public areas in downtown l.a. Officially underway right now city officials say they're doing it all to clean improve and maintain a safe environment for the public experts predicting to morrow night will be a big one for H.B.O.'s Game of Thrones and Veep at the primetime Emmy Awards here Xenia trio they are the pigs to win best drama and best comedy Game of Thrones has a record breaking.