KT McFarland, Rep. Barbara Comstock, Fix WMATA’s Chris Barnes, Washington Post’s Matt Bonesteel, Bill Kristol and DC Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Primary Results: Rubio Out. Where Should Rubio’s Supporters Go?

5am – D         DC Metro Shutdown: How is the shutdown impacting your commute?

5am – E         Uber News: Uber to Cap Surge Pricing. Uber Adding Uber Eats To Select Citiies.

6am – A/B/C Primary Results: Rubio Out. Where Should Rubio’s Supporters Go?

6am – D         INTERVIEW — KT MCFARLAND – Fox News National Security Analyst

• Russian warplanes leave Syria, raising U.N. hopes for peace talks.       Russian warplanes flew home from Syria on Tuesday as Moscow started to withdraw forces that have tipped the war President Bashar al-Assad’s way, and the U.N. envoy said he hoped the move would help peace talks in Geneva. As the first aircraft touched down in Russia, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called President Vladimir Putin’s surprise move a “significant development” towards resolving a conflict which this week passes its fifth anniversary. Assad’s opponents hope Putin’s announcement on Monday that most Russian forces would be withdrawn signalled a shift in his support. However, its full significance is not yet clear: Russia is keeping an air base and undeclared number of forces in Syria. Russian jets were in action against Islamic State on Tuesday. Assad also still enjoys military backing from Iran, which has sent forces to Syria along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

• How United Is the European Union? The European Union is not very united today. The refugee crisis that has brought about restrictions on the movement of people among members is the immediate threat to unity. The Greek debt crisis and other issues related to the use of the Euro are a second fundamental economic threat to unity. The forthcoming UK referendum on whether to leave the EU is another serious problem, although some of the most contentious issues facing the UK are related to intra-EU migration, and the Euro. These are all mainly economic problems, but an additional issue is how to respond to the aggressive policies of Mr. Putin’s Russia. Policies toward Russia are primarily about national security, but the common EU policies used so far have been restrictions on trade, banking and finance. Disagreement among members about these issues places the EU at a crossroads. Will the EU members accept greater unity or will they move toward greater flexibility and accept greater policy differences?
• North Korea sentences U.S. student to 15 years hard labor. (CNN) — North Korea has sentenced an American student to 15 years of hard labor after accusing him of removing a political banner from a hotel. The U.S. State Department fired back Wednesday, saying the punishment doesn’t fit the alleged crime. The sentence against University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier is “unduly harsh,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, calling for his release. The United States urges North Korea “to pardon him and to grant him special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds,” Toner said. North Korea requests U.N. Security Council meeting Trial reportedly lasted one hour. Warmbier had traveled to Pyongyang on a trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based travel company. He was arrested on January 2, 2016, as he was about to board a plane to leave the country, on the charge of committing a hostile act against the state. The North Korean government alleged that Warmbier was encouraged to commit the “hostile act” by a purported member of a church in his home state of Ohio, a secretive university organization and even the CIA. In court Wednesday, North Korean officials presented fingerprints, photos of a political banner and surveillance images — proof, they said, that Warmbier committed crimes against the regime.

6am – E         INTERVIEW — CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA COMSTOCK (R-Virginia)

• Her thoughts on the DC metro shutdown
• ON METRO PROBLEMS: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Transportation Committee Member Barbara Comstock (R-VA) may have a potential hearing: Last year the Transportation Committee passed and the President signed the FAST Act, which included provisions to strengthen transit safety mechanisms and enforcement. Congresswoman Comstock worked to include provisions targeted at improving safety oversight of WMATA. “We will closely monitor developments and assess the need for any additional steps, including a potential hearing.”
• MARCO RUBIO SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN — Last time we spoke to her, she endorsing Marco Rubio. Now that Rubio has suspended his campaign, is there another candidate she supports? What did she think when she heard him suspending his campaign?

7am – A         INTERVIEW — CHRIS BARNES – FIXWMATA.com and on Twitter at @FOXWMATA

• Metrorail system to shut down for at least 24 hours beginning at midnight. The entire Metro system will shut down for at least 24 hours starting at midnight tonight for safety checks of electric cables, General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said Tuesday. The decision for the unprecedented closure was made by the board of directors and Wiedefeld in a telephone conference call earlier this afternoon. They took the step after an electrical fire in a Metro tunnel early Monday, which caused huge delays on three subway lines, involved the same type of track-based power cables that burned during last year’s fatal Yellow Line smoke incident in another tunnel, the transit agency said. The unprecedented, non-weather-related shutdown tonight is to avoid a repeat of the deadly incident.

7am – B/C    Taking calls on the commute.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – MATT BONESTEEL – Washington Post sports writer, blogger and editor of The Washington Post’s Early Lead – previewed march Madness.

7am – E         National Park Service revises peak Cherry blossom bloom dates.

WASHINGTON — Once again, fickle weather has changed the predicted bloom dates for D.C.’s cherry blossoms. National Park Service officials are now saying that the best time to see the blossoms is on March 23 and March 24. This timeframe is narrower than the March 18-March 23 prediction park officials gave last week. National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said Tuesday that colder temperatures were the reason for the shorter bloom window. Initially, park officials thought the cherry blossoms would reach peak bloom at the end of the month. “It’s really like nothing else we do, trying to predict something that so many people are counting on,” Litterst said last week. This year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, which marks the anniversary of Japan’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees, runs from March 20 through April 17. It’s one of D.C.’s biggest tourism events.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW — BILL KRISTOL – Editor, The Weekly Standard

• His thoughts on the primary results
• Marco Rubio drops out of presidential campaign after Florida loss
• Trump and Clinton win big as Kasich takes Ohio

8am – D         INTERVIEW – JACK EVANS – DC COUNCILMEMBER AND DC METRO BOARD CHAIRMAN

• Jack Evans Represents Ward 2 of Washington, D.C. since 1991, Evans is the D.C. Council’s longest serving lawmaker and serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
• Metrorail system to shut down for at least 24 hours beginning at midnight. The entire Metro system will shut down for at least 24 hours starting at midnight tonight for safety checks of electric cables, General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said Tuesday. The decision for the unprecedented closure was made by the board of directors and Wiedefeld in a telephone conference call earlier this afternoon. They took the step after an electrical fire in a Metro tunnel early Monday, which caused huge delays on three subway lines, involved the same type of track-based power cables that burned during last year’s fatal Yellow Line smoke incident in another tunnel, the transit agency said. The unprecedented, non-weather-related shutdown tonight is to avoid a repeat of the deadly incident.

8am – E         Harrison Ford News:

• Steven Spielberg & Harrison Ford Team Up For ‘Indiana Jones 5’; Disney Sets July 2019 Release. Disney has just announced that Harrison Ford will be reprising his iconic role as Indiana Jones in the fifth installment in the series with Steven Spielberg returning to the director’s chair. The pic will hit screens on July 19, 2019. Spielberg directed the previous four pics, and this one has yet to be titled. Franchise vets Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce. Deadline broke the news back in February 2015 that Spielberg was mounting this production. At the time, he expressed that he was interested in Chris Pratt joining. That casting is still TBD, per one insider.
• Disney’s Young Han Solo Search Narrows to Final Shortlist of Actors After Screen-Tests. The search for the young actor who will fill Han Solo’s leather vest could be in its final stages, as multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that a shortlist quietly has emerged. According to sources, last weekend in London tests were conducted involving actors Alden Ehrenreich, who did scene-stealing work in Hail, Caesar!; Jack Reynor, best known for his work in Transformers: Age of Extinction; and Taron Egerton, the star of The Kingsman and Eddie the Eagle. Sources say there could be a few other names on the list, though due to the high level of secrecy on all Star Wars projects, it’s hard to ascertain them. Disney declined to comment. Those who tested — and it’s unclear if these were costume tests or screen tests — were plucked from a previous group of around 10 actors who met with the directors. Among the names whispered to have met are Miles Teller, the Whiplash star who appears in the Divergent movies; and Ansel Elgort, the Fault in Our Stars star who also is in the Divergent movies.