Carmen Fowler LaBerge, WMATA Riders’ Union’s Graham Jenkins and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

 5am – A/B/C D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser announces work readiness program to support returning citizens. WASHINGTON (WJLA) — Washington mayor Muriel Bowser announced a new work readiness program Monday to help recently released prisoners transition back into society. The program is designed to give returning citizens a combination of work readiness skills and experience. Mayor Bowser visited a Washington jail Monday where she met with inmates to discuss the new initiative. Bowser’s program will support returning citizens through programs that call for a change in the amount of “good time” credits a misdemeanor inmate may receive, allows inmates to earn up to three “good time” credits per month for good behavior and five “good time” credits for completion of rehabilitative programs, work detail and special projects and allows pre-trial misdemeanor inmates to be temporarily released from the D.C. Jail during work hours so they can keep working at their job while they serve their sentence.

5am – D         BERNIE SANDERS VISIT TO VA

• Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders rallies in Virginia. Before coming to Manassas Monday night Sanders campaigned at Liberty University in Lynchburg and UVA in Charlottesville.
• Bernie Sanders to Liberty University: America Founded on ‘Racist Principles, That’s a Fact’

5am – E         Mark Cuban: I could beat Trump AND Clinton. Mark Cuban, like Donald Trump, is a billionaire, having made his first huge fortune on the sale of Broadcast.com in 1999. Cuban, like Trump, is a reality TV star, appearing on ABC’s business-themed “Shark Tank,” a show that also airs on CNBC. And just like Trump, Cuban is no stranger to controversy: He has been repeatedly fined by the NBA for his boisterous criticism of referees during games of the basketball team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks. But this year, Cuban’s most striking similarity to Trump is this: He is thinking about running for president.

6am – A/B/C Arnold Schwarzenegger has replaced Trump as #CelebrityApprentice’s CEO and host. Trump Congratulates Arnold Schwarzenegger As New Host of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ NBC has named Arnold Schwarzenegger the new host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” The former California governor will take over board room duties from Donald Trump, who left the show when he started his run for President.

Congrats to my friend @Schwarzenegger who is doing next season’s Celebrity Apprentice. He’ll be great & will raise lots of $ for charity.    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2015

Conan Pitchs Apprentice Catchphrases to Arnold Schwarzenegger. With Arnold Schwarzenegger taking over for Donald Trump as host of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice, Conan O’Brien decided to pitch some possible catchphrases to replace Trump’s “You’re fired.” Beyond the obvious “Hasta la vista, baby” and “You’re terminated” one personal favorite was: “Here are some True Lies about you: I’m not firing you, I’ve never thought of firing you, and you are not fired. Those are lies, I’m firing you.”

6am – D/E     What Classic Movies Should Never Be Remade?

• New ‘Mary Poppins’ movie in the works. (The Hollywood Reporter) – Disney will once again say the word “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” More than 50 years after Mary Poppins flew in on an umbrella into the hearts of moviegoers, Disney is developing a new live action “Poppins” movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The new story will be set around 20 years after the tale of the classic 1964 movie that starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It will also take its cues from the book series that P.L. Travers wrote. (The original, published in 1934 is based largely on the first book. The last book in the series was released in 1988.) Rob Marshall, who directed “Into the Woods” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” for the studio, will helm the new feature, which will also be a musical.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – CARMEN FOWLER LABERGE – religious liberty activist and a leader with the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative offshoot of the Presbyterian Church USA

• Is Kim Davis defending religious liberty?
• Religious liberty activist: ‘Kim Davis wrong poster child’ Not all religious liberty advocates are lining up behind Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple. That might come as a surprise to a few of the Republican presidential candidates who have made religious liberty a focal point of their campaign, and who, in recent days, have used Davis and her plight to promote this aspect of their candidacies to socially conservative GOP primary voters. Still, there are some dissenters among socially conservative, religious liberty activists, and Carmen Fowler LaBerge is among them. Fowler LaBerge, a staunch opponent of government-sanctioned same sex marriage, is a leader with the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative offshoot of the Presbyterian Church USA that formed over concerns that the PCUSA had veered too liberal. But she believes Davis a “bad poster child” for religious liberty and said the clerk’s actions were a poor platform from which to fight the Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage.

7am – B/C    Road closures for pope’s visit to create significant delays for commuters. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON — The delays and closures surrounding the papal visit next week will be so significant, commuters should get in their cars only “as a last resort,” officials said Monday. The District Department of Transportation anticipates the biggest delays will come Wednesday morning in Virginia because the road closures in town, including Constitution Avenue, will trigger backups across the Potomac River. “On G.W. Parkway coming down south into the city, our models show for the worst-case conditions an hour and 45-minute delay,” says Wasim Raja, a traffic signal manager. The delays on Interstate 66 could reach an hour and a half, he says. For weeks, city leaders have been encouraging anyone who has the option to telework from home instead.

7am – D         Ringo Starr Cleaning House, Will Auction Beatles ‘Stuff’ For Charity. Ringo Starr seems to be on a bit of a cleaning binge. And that can be a chore when you own an estate in London, one in Beverly Hills and another in Monaco. Last week, the Beatles drummer announced that he was preparing to publish a new book of never-before-seen photographs he took of the Fab Four in the ’60s, explaining: “I had a lot of stuff in storage, and we had to move everything, and I started finding books of negatives, a lot of them I didn’t know I still had.” Now, Starr says he’s ready to auction off more than 800 items owned by him and his wife, including a Rickenbacker guitar known as the “Beatle-Backer” that John Lennon owned and later gave to him.

7am – E         2016 News:

• Trump At Dallas Rally: “George Will Is A Disaster”; Karl Rove “Total Incompetent Jerk” (Mediaite) – At a large campaign event held at American Airlines arena in Dallas on Monday evening, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called out conservative columnist George Will and Republican operative Karl Rove for their public opposition of him. “George Will is a disaster,” Trump said of the commentator. “The guy is a disaster.” “Another one, Karl Rove,” Trump said, name-checking the Republican fundraiser. “No, he’s terrible. Terrible. He’s terrible. Karl Rove still thinks Mitt Romney won the election. Karl Rove ought to be on Wall Street, he raises money pretty well. He raised last cycle, the last presidential election, he raised $434 million and didn’t win one race. Can you believe that? Can you believe it?” “I think the guy is a total incompetent jerk,” Trump said of Rove. “Anybody who gives him, Karl Rove, the group of losers, it doesn’t make sense because they don’t know what they’re doing.
• Clinton’s support erodes sharply among Democratic women. COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hillary Rodham Clinton is suffering a rapid erosion of support among Democratic women — the voters long presumed to be the bedrock in her bid to become the nation’s first female president. The numbers in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll are an alarm siren: Where 71 percent of Democratic-leaning female voters said in July that they expected to vote for Clinton, only 42 percent do now, a drop of 29 percentage points in eight weeks.
• State Dept. concedes ‘gaps’ in Clinton emails; contradiction could result in perjury charge. (Washington Examiner) –The emails former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton turned back over to the government last year contained “gaps,” according to internal department messages evaluating her production. Mrs. Clinton took office on Jan. 21, 2009, but the first message she turned back over to the department was dated March 18, and the earliest-dated message she herself sent was on April 13, or nearly three months into her time in office, according to a message obtained through an open records request by Judicial Watch, which released it Monday.
• The Republican Candidates Donald Trump Has Hurt the Most. Donald Trump is hurting all his fellow Republican presidential candidates, though some more than others. Rick Perry, who suspended his campaign on Friday, is at the top of that list but is far from alone.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — GRAHAM JENKINS – SPOKESPERSON, WMATA Riders’ Union

• Metro riders form union to serve as platform to address concerns. Last week, Barnes and fellow Metro watchers Ashley Robbins, known online as “Clayton County Transit Girl,” Graham Jenkins (@lowheadways) and business analyst Roger Bowles started the WMATA Riders’ Union, which was formed via a digital hangout that attracted dozens of viewers. As @FixWMATA, Barnes has been known for his blistering nonstop criticism of the agency — and the media for its coverage — but he now says it’s time for a different approach.

• NEXT WEEK: Metro will operate at near-rush hour capacity on the Wednesday and Thursday of the papal visit. The trains also are expected to be packed for the Nationals-Orioles games and for the Ed Sheerhan concert at Verizon Center Wednesday. Metro plans to have ready 978 cars for the rail system, dozens more than are in use on a typical weekday.

8am – B         SPORTS NEWS:

• House Democrat: Investigate Fantasy Football Websites. (National Review) — A top House Democrat wants Congress to investigate fantasy sports websites that have thus far evaded restrictions on online gambling. Representative Frank Pallone cited FanDuel and DraftKings as particularly prominent daily fantasy sites. “Anyone who watched a game this weekend was inundated by commercials for fantasy sports websites, and it’s only the first week of the NFL season,” he said in a statement Monday. “These sites are enormously popular, arguably central to the fans’ experience, and professional leagues are seeing the enormous profits as a result. Despite how mainstream these sites have become, though, the legal landscape governing these activities remains murky and should be reviewed.” The top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee conjured concerns that players might use fantasy sports to bet on games.
• Forbes: Washington Redskins are NFL’s third richest team. WASHINGTON — Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has had a tough time building a winner on the field, but it seems like he’s doing a fine job with finances. According to Forbes, the ‘Skins are worth $2.85 billion, making them the third most lucrative team in the NFL. On Sunday, the team opened the 2015-16 season with a 17-10 loss against the Miami Dolphins at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. Not surprisingly, the Dallas Cowboys — the Redskins’ most-hated rival — is the league’s richest team. The team is worth $4 billion and last year generated revenue of $620 million, a record among U.S. sports teams. With an average of 90,000 fans per home game, the Cowboys ranked first in attendance, premium seating revenue ($120 million) and stadium revenue generated from non-NFL events ($30 million).
• Bowser, Leonsis reach tentative deal for Wizards practice facility at St. Elizabeths. The Wizards plan to open a state-of-the-art practice facility at the former St. Elizabeths hospital, in Southeast. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis have agreed on the framework for a tentative deal to build a new Wizards practice facility and Mystics arena on the east campus of the former St. Elizabeths hospital in Southeast D.C. District officials confirmed the agreement Monday morning. Bowser is expected to make an announcement later this week. A District source familiar with the agreement said details are still be worked out. The cost of the structure is estimated at $50-60 million. Bowser’s economic development team is likely to contribute the needed land for the project and less than half of the cost of the building itself.
• Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin announces engagement. Alex Ovechkin announces engagement on social media. WASHINGTON — In the midst of NFL kickoff weekend and college football, you may have missed this hockey-related tidbit: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is engaged. Ovechkin and girlfriend Nastya Shubskaya took to Instagram on Friday, both posting pictures announcing their engagement. Ovechkin’s photo caption reads, “She said yes..))) <3 <3 <3.”

8am – C         Caitlyn Jenner to take ‘breather’ after whirlwind four months. Now Caitlyn Jenner wants to transition out of the spotlight for a while. The reality star said as much Monday in her latest blog post on her website. “Many of you have written and asked what’s next for me,” Jenner wrote. “I’m going to take (a) breather for a minute. I want to continue to grow as a person.” In the blog, she also played many of the same chords she’s advocated for the past four months: acceptance, openness and the right to be yourself. Jenner’s thought-invoking post comes one day after the season one finale of her E! docu-series “I Am Cait.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry KUDLOW Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm

• Blumenthal provides Iran deal crucial vote. After weeks of consultations and soul-searching, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., finally announced that he will support the Iran nuclear agreement, helping the Obama administration achieve a potentially critical Senate milestone.
• Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders rallies in Virginia. Before coming to Manassas Monday night Sanders campaigned at Liberty University in Lynchburg and UVA in Charlottesville.
• Thoughts on GOP strategy for the debate on Wednesday — what should the GOP candidates do to counter Trump?

8am – E         Brian and Larry will be live-tweeting on our Twitter account @WMALDC!