Chad Livengood, David Martosko, VA Del. Mark Cole, Newt Gingrich and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A         Larry Reviews The Benghazi “13 Hours” Movie.

5am – B/C     DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – CHAD LIVENGOOD – Capitol Reporter, The Detroit News in the Lansing bureau

• Gov. Rick Snyder intends to appeal the Obama administration’s denial of a major disaster declaration in Flint that blocked the governor’s request for $96 million in federal aid for bottled water, faucet filters and replacing lead-leaching pipes.
• Sanders calls for Michigan governor to resign over Flint water crisis. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign over Flint’s drinking water crisis. Sanders said there were “no excuses” for the prolonged water issues in Flint, which started two years ago when the state choose to switch the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in an effort to save money. “The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint’s water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned,” Sanders said in a statement. “Thousands may have been exposed to potential brain damage from lead. Gov. Snyder should resign.”

5am – D         Exclusive: Pentagon May Demote David Petraeus. The Defense Secretary is looking to put the clamp down on misbehaving generals. Pentagon insiders say Petraeus could be the next general to face the consequences. The Pentagon is considering retroactively demoting retired Gen. David Petraeus after he admitted to giving classified information to his biographer and mistress while he was still in uniform, three people with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast. The decision now rests with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who is said to be willing to consider overruling an earlier recommendation by the Army that Petraeus not have his rank reduced. Such a demotion could cost the storied general hundreds of thousands of dollars—and deal an additional blow to his once-pristine reputation. “The secretary is considering going in a different direction” from the Army, a defense official told The Daily Beast, because he wants to be consistent in his treatment of senior officers who engage in misconduct and to send a message that even men of Petraeus’s fame and esteemed reputation are not immune to punishment. Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook told The Daily Beast that Carter had requested the information McHugh had when he made his recommendation on the matter, before reaching a final decision. “The Department of the Army is still in the process of providing the Secretary with information relevant to former‎ Secretary McHugh’s recommendation,” Cook told The Daily Beast, referring to ex-Army Secretary John McHugh, who had recommended taking no action against Petraeus. “Once the Secretary‎ has an opportunity to consider this information, he will make his decision about next steps, if any, in this matter.” Carter could also recommend other actions that don’t result in Petraeus losing his fourth star. Or the Defense Secretary could simply allow the Army’s previous recommendations to stand.

5am – E         Snow Forecast:

• Schools in Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William to open two hours late. Public schools in Virginia’s Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties will open two hours late Tuesday because of the extreme cold forecast for the morning hours, including wind chills as low as the single digits, officials said. “These precautions will ensure the safety of all students, especially the thousands who walk to school,” Prince William County school officials said in a statement announcing the delay. A wind chill advisory — meaning very cold air and strong winds — is in effect for Montgomery, Loudoun and Frederick counties until 12 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
• Major snowstorm may threaten DC to Boston Friday into Saturday. The potential exists for a major snowstorm to affect more than 50 million people across the eastern United States at the end of the week. Areas from near Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston could receive heavy snow from the storm. The storm will roll onshore in northern California on Tuesday, then dip southward toward the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday before turning northeastward along the Atlantic coast on Friday. The wintry mix will ramp up over the southern Appalachians during Thursday night. On Friday, the wintry part of storm will focus on the mid-Atlantic region. Part of New England would be most affected by the storm from Friday night into Saturday night. Based on the most likely storm track at this early stage, cities from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore and Philadelphia, as well as the suburbs, are included in the swath of heavy snow potential.

6am – A/B/C UK lawmakers debate banning Donald Trump from Britain. LONDON (AP) — Donald Trump doesn’t have many fans in Britain’s Parliament. But a debate among lawmakers on calls to ban Trump from the country revealed little appetite to close Britain’s doors to the provocative Republican U.S. presidential contender. During a three-hour debate Monday, legislators from Britain’s main parties stood to call Trump an attention-seeker, a demagogue and a fool. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned. “While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be the one to silence his voice,” said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Parliament took up the topic after half a million people signed a petition calling for Trump to be excluded over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of extremist violence. Trump has also claimed that some areas of Britain are so radicalized that police fear for their lives. Under British law, any petition supported by 100,000 people — who must each provide and confirm an email address — is considered for parliamentary debate. Monday’s debate was intended to air the subject rather than take a vote. Labour Party legislator Paul Flynn, who opened the session, said Trump had already received “far too much attention.” “The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood” and boost his popularity among supporters, Flynn said.

6am – D         Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who sang ‘Take It Easy,’ dies. Glenn Frey, who co-founded the Eagles and with Don Henley became one of history’s most successful songwriting teams with such hits as “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane,” has died. NEW YORK (AP) — Glenn Frey, a rock ‘n’ roll rebel from Detroit who journeyed West, co-founded the Eagles and with Don Henley formed one of history’s most successful songwriting teams with such hits as “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane,” has died. Frey, 67, died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia, the band said on its website. He died Monday in New York. He had fought the ailments for the past several weeks, the band said. “Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide,” a statement on the band’s website said. Frey’s health problems, including diverticulitis, dated to the 1980s. He would blame in part his years of “burgers and beer and blow and broads” and later became a fitness advocate.

6am – E         Va. bills to address transgender student bathroom use. WASHINGTON — Two bills introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates try to clarify which bathrooms transgender students can use. House Bills 663 and 781 require that every public, multiple-occupancy restroom in a state government or school building across the Commonwealth be designated for the sole use of a specific gender, either anatomically or biologically. There is also a provision that would allow a student to use a transgender student to use a single-occupancy restroom. Violators could face a fine of up to 50 dollars.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — David Martosko – US Political Editor, DailyMail.com — discussed 2016 news: Trump’s visit to Liberty University.

7am – B         ‘Fresh Prince’ Actress Slams Jada Pinkett Smith’s Oscars Boycott With Video Rant. Janet Hubert, who played the first Aunt Viv, posted a video on Martin Luther King Jr. Day addressing the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, and, specifically, Pinkett Smith’s public decision to boycott the show. Janet Hubert is the latest celebrity to speak out about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, but she is aiming her thoughts at two people in particular: Jada Pinkett and Will Smith. The actress, who co-starred alongside Smith for years on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as Aunt Viv, posted an online video on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in response to Pinkett Smith’s video announcing why she plans to boycott the 2016 Oscars. For the second consecutive year, no black actors were nominated in any of the four acting categories — including Smith, who was snubbed for his lead role in Concussion. “The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose and now I think that it’s our responsibility, now, to make the change,” Pinkett Smith said in her video. “Maybe it is time that we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities and our programs and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called ‘mainstream’ ones.” Referring to Pinkett Smith as “Miss Thing,” Hubert opens her video by asking, “Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?” before launching into her thoughts on the controversy that has drawn so much attention (it even prompted the Academy to release a rare statement on Monday.) “I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win?” said Hubert. “That’s not the way life works, baby.”

7am – C         Big banks brace for oil loans to implode. Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling. Firms on Wall Street helped bankroll America’s energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects that ended up flooding the world with oil. Now that the oil glut has caused prices to crash below $30 a barrel, turmoil is rippling through the energy industry and souring many of those loans. Dozens of oil companies have gone bankrupt and the ones that haven’t are feeling enough financial stress to slash spending and cut tens of thousands of jobs. Three of America’s biggest banks warned last week that oil prices will continue to create headaches on Wall Street — especially if doomsday scenarios of $20 or even $10 oil play out. For instance, Wells Fargo (WFC) is sitting on more than $17 billion in loans to the oil and gas sector. The bank is setting aside $1.2 billion in reserves to cover losses because of the “continued deterioration within the energy sector.” JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is setting aside an extra $124 million to cover potential losses in its oil and gas loans. It warned that figure could rise to $750 million if oil prices unexpectedly stay at their current $30 level for the next 18 months. “The biggest area of stress” is the oil and gas space, Marianne Lake, JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, told analysts during a call on Thursday. “As the outlook for oil has weakened, we would expect to see some additional reserve build in 2016.”

7am – D     INTERVIEW – VIRGINIA DEL. MARK COLE – Virginia Delegate representing the 88th District; Counties of Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Fauquier, and City of Fredericksburg.

• Va. bill would require restroom use based on ‘anatomical sex.’ A Virginia lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require people to use public restrooms that correspond with their “anatomical sex.” House Bill 663, which state Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg) introduced on Monday, would “require every restroom designated for public use in any public building on property that is owned, leased or controlled by the commonwealth…and that is designated for use by a specific gender to solely be used by individuals whose anatomical sex matches such gender designation.” The Fredericksburg Republican’s measure would also apply to local school boards. “Local school boards shall develop and implement policies that require every school restroom, locker room or shower room that is designated for use by a specific gender to solely be used by individuals whose anatomical sex matches such gender designation,” reads HB 663. “Such policies may also provide that a student may, upon request, be granted access, to the extent reasonable, to a single stall restroom or shower, a unisex bathroom, or controlled individual use of a restroom, locker room, or shower.” HB 663 defines “anatomical sex” as “the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person’s anatomy.” It also calls for any person or student who “willfully and knowingly violates” the proposed law to face a fine of up to $50. Cole on Wednesday also introduced House Bill 781, which would require people to use public restrooms and those located inside schools that correspond to their “biological gender.”

7am – E         Debates:

• NBC replaced by CNN for GOP’s Super Tuesday debate. (CNN Money) — The Republican National Committee has decided to sever ties with NBC News for February’s Super Tuesday debate and will instead partner with CNN, it was announced Monday. “The Republican National Committee has decided to move forward without NBC’s participation in our February debate in Houston, Texas. The RNC has awarded the debate to CNN, who will broadcast it on Thursday, February 25th in Houston at a location to be decided,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a statement. Priebus said that the debate will include Telemundo, the NBCUniversal-owned Hispanic media company that had been scheduled to co-host the debate; National Review, NBC’s original conservative media partner; and Salem Communications, CNN’s conservative media partner in previous debates. The decision comes two-and-a-half months after the RNC suspended its partnership with NBC News because of CNBC’s handling of the third GOP debate in October, which the Republicans said devolved into a series of “gotcha’ questions. The RNC’s debate committee held a vote on Monday afternoon and decided unanimously to terminate NBC’s involvement and hand control to CNN, which has already hosted two Republican primary debates and is scheduled to host another one in March. The CNN debate will take place five days before Republican voters in Texas and 13 other states head to the polls and caucuses for “Super Tuesday,” on March 1.
• Maddow Asks Hillary If Her Campaign’s Responsible for Placing Dem Debates in ‘TV Siberia.’ One of the theories frequently posited by people discussing why the Democrats have limited debates and placed them on weekend has been that it’s a deliberate strategy to benefit Hillary Clinton‘s campaign, possibly pushed for by her campaign in the first place. Clinton called into MSNBC tonight and, after she said she loves the debates, Rachel Maddow pressed her on that charge. She asked, “Is it true that your campaign advocated for a light schedule and particularly these debates being on on TV Siberia, on weekends and holidays?” Clinton said she has no knowledge of that whatsoever, repeatedly explaining what she understood to be the case from the DNC––they wanted to drive more viewership and the networks preferred setting the debates on weekends as opposed to bumping primetime weekday programming.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — NEWT GINGRICH — former Speaker of the House, former presidential candidate and author of new fiction book, a DC thriller, titled “Duplicity”

• 2016: Two weeks to Iowa Caucus: Trump’s Cruz insults, and Trump visits Liberty University: ‘Two Corinthians, right?’
• Iran’s prisoner swap
• Speaker’s thoughts on the new Benghazi film “13 HOURS”
• Newt loves zoos. Has he seen Bei Bei yet?

8am – B         Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who sang ‘Take It Easy,’ dies. NEW YORK (AP) — Glenn Frey, a rock ‘n’ roll rebel from Detroit who journeyed West, co-founded the Eagles and with Don Henley formed one of history’s most successful songwriting teams with such hits as “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane,” has died.

8am – C         High fish consumption in pregnancy tied to brain benefits for kids. (Reuters) — When mothers eat three sizeable servings of fish each week during pregnancy it may benefit children’s brains for years to come, according to a large study in Spain. Researchers followed nearly 2,000 mother-child pairs from the first trimester of pregnancy through the child’s fifth birthday and found improved brain function in the kids whose mothers ate the most fish while pregnant, compared to children of mothers who ate the least. Even when women averaged 600 grams, or 21 ounces, of fish weekly during pregnancy, there was no sign that mercury or other pollutants associated with fish were having a negative effect that offset the apparent benefits. “Seafood is known to be an important source of essential nutrients for brain development, but at the same time accumulates mercury from the environment, which is known to be neurotoxic,” lead author Jordi Julvez, of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, said in an email. In an attempt to balance the potential harms of such pollutants with the general health benefits of fish, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2014 guidelines encourage pregnant women to eat fish, but no more than 12 ounces per week. The European Food Safety Authority recently issued a scientific opinion endorsing 150 g to 600 g of fish weekly during pregnancy, Julvez and colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology. But, the study team writes, the effects of maternal fish consumption during development are still not well understood and more research could help give pregnant women clearer guidance.

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

• ECONOMY: Big banks brace for oil loans to implode. Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling. Firms on Wall Street helped bankroll America’s energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects that ended up flooding the world with oil.
• China economic growth slowest in 25 years. (BBC) — China’s economy grew by 6.9% in 2015, compared with 7.3% a year earlier, marking its slowest growth in a quarter of a century.
• 2016: Two weeks to Iowa Caucus

8am – E         Major snowstorm may threaten DC to Boston Friday into Saturday. The potential exists for a major snowstorm to affect more than 50 million people across the eastern United States at the end of the week. Areas from near Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston could receive heavy snow from the storm. The storm will roll onshore in northern California on Tuesday, then dip southward toward the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday before turning northeastward along the Atlantic coast on Friday.