MD GOP’s Joe Cluster, DC Health Director Dr. Nesbitt, Daily Caller’s Vince Conglianese and Fairfax School Board member Elizabeth Schultz joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, May 13, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

5am – A         INTERVIEW – KEN KLUKOWSKI – Breitbart legal editor

• Federal judge strikes down Obamacare payments. (USA Today) — WASHINGTON — Republicans won the first round Thursday in a separation of powers battle against President Obama that once again focuses on his most prized achievement: Obamacare. Federal district Judge Rosemary Collyer, a Republican appointee, ruled that the law did not provide for the funds insurers need to make health insurance policies under the program affordable. While the law provides for tax credits, she said, it does not authorize an appropriation for slashing deductibles and copayments. Without those reductions from insurers, many consumers could not afford to buy insurance. “Congress authorized reduced cost-sharing but did not appropriate monies for it,,” Collyer said in her 38-page ruling. “Congress is the only source for such an appropriation, and no public money can be spent without one.”

5am – B         Donald Trump And Paul Ryan Meet. (Daily Caller) — WASHINGTON — The two leaders of the Republican party — House speaker Paul Ryan and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump — met for a summit Thursday on Capitol Hill, a week after Ryan said he wasn’t ready to support Trump yet. Trump and Ryan gathered Thursday morning at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters along with RNC chairman Reince Priebus. Protestors, spectators and journalists awaited the arrival of Trump, whose motorcade dropped him off at a side entrance. In his weekly press conference after the meeting, Ryan repeatedly said he was “encouraged” by what heard from Trump. But Ryan still didn’t offer an endorsement.

5am – C         Navy fires officer in charge of sailors detained in Iran. Washington (CNN)The U.S. Navy officer who oversaw the 10 sailors captured and briefly detained by Iran earlier this year has been relieved of his duties due to “loss of confidence” in his ability, the Navy announced Thursday. Cmdr. Eric Rasch was fired from his job as the commanding officer of Coastal Riverine Squadron 3 and temporarily reassigned. These type of personnel actions typically result in the officer then retiring from active duty.

5am – D/E     Metro Update:

• Metro Plans 16-Day Shutdown of Section of Blue, Orange, Silver Lines. (NBC Washington) — Metro is planning a 16-day closure of a stretch of the Blue, Orange and Silver lines after the Federal Transit Administration demanded immediate fixes from the transit system. Last week, Metro released a draft of its SafeTrack plan to focus on repairing certain parts of the system, which will lead to single-tracking and shutdowns in some areas over the next year. But the FTA told Metro in a letter Wednesday that it’s going to need to shuffle its priorities and make immediate repairs to certain sections of track before beginning the SafeTrack plan. That means Metro may now have to move up this massive shutdown project on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines to be the first project.  It will require shutting down the Blue and Silver lines between Eastern Market and Benning Road and the Orange line between Eastern Market and Minnesota Avenue for repairs. Metro plans to move that part of the project up from August to June.
• Problems Friday morning for Metro’s Red Line riders. Happy Friday. Riders on Metro’s Red Line should expect delays. Metrorail Info ‎@Metrorailinfo: Red Line: Single tracking btwn Friendship Heights & Van Ness due to a track problem at Friendship Heights. Expect delays in both directions. 5:17 AM – 13 May 2016

5am – E         Clinton abandoned secure line to use home phone, new email shows. (The Hill) — New emails released by a conservative watchdog group on Thursday appear to show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directing a top aide to call her via an unsecured phone line when technical troubles prevented a secure phone conversation. “I give up. Call me on my home #,” Clinton told then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills in a February 2009 email, after more than an hour of trouble trying to communicate via a secure line. “I just spoke to ops and called you reg line – we have to wait until we see each other b/c [the] technology is not working,” Mills said in another email sent at almost exactly the same time. “Pls try again,” responded Clinton, a few moments later. It’s unclear whether the two did connect, or if they moderated any discussion they may have had to avoid sensitive topics while on an unsecure landline. But the episode is likely to cause concern among critics of Clinton, who have previously accused her of resorting to unsecure forms of communication out of convenience.

 

6am – A/B/C John Legend praised for speaking out against ‘mum-shaming’ of his wife Chrissy Teigen. (Telegraph) — John Legend and Chrissy Teigen recently went out to dinner without their newborn daughter and social media comments flooded in, calling Teigen irresponsible for not bringing the child with them. Legend responded to parenting critics: ‘Funny there’s no dad-shaming.’

6am – D/E     The Obama administration will tell all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. In the middle of a legal fight with North Carolina over transgender rights, the Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping decree telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. The letter to school districts that will go out Friday describing what they should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against, signed by officials of the Justice Department and Department of Education, does not have the force of law. But it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JOE CLUSTER — Executive Director, Maryland Republican Party

• Maryland state convention this weekend, determining the delegates — how it works, how delegates are determined, does the governor get to be a delegate and what we need to know
• Will Montgomery County Republicans be able to get term limits for MOCO officials?
• Cluster analyzed the Maryland Senate race.

7am – B         Food News:

• Burger King Just Opened a Spa In One Its Restaurants. You can eat your Whopper in the steam room. (TIME) — You can eat your Whopper in the steam room. Burger King recently opened a spa in one of its Helsinki locations, featuring saunas and steam rooms. The restaurant’s 15-person sauna, according to its website, is ideal for social gatherings, birthday parties and other events. A separate 10-person sauna is decked out with a 48-inch television. Other than the steam rooms, visitors can relax in the media lounges where amenities include a 55-inch television, Playstation 4 area, and laundry room. In case patrons get hungry during their steam, Whoppers are accessible both in the sauna and restaurant — though you have to book your spa trip in advance.
• Wendy’s Offers Franchises Self-Serve Kiosks To Offset Minimum Wage Hikes. (Daily Caller) – As the fight over raising the minimum wage enters the presidential race and unions rile up low-skilled employees to fight to increase it to $15 per hour, fast-food industry workers are facing a harsh reality: they may soon be replaced by machines. With states like California and New York already increasing their minimum wages, fast-food restaurants have begun researching cost-saving measures.  Wendy’s will begin offering self-serve kiosks to all of their franchisees, more than 6,000 locations, in the second half of 2016, Investor’s Business Daily reports.
• Reese’s Pieces-filled Peanut Butter Cups are probably coming to a store near you. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with Reese’s Pieces Inside Them Coming This Summer. It’s been nearly six years since the movie Inception hit theaters, but apparently its impact is still being felt in the world of candy. Hershey has launched a social media campaign teasing a new product rumored to be hitting shelves this July: a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup that is filled not just with peanut butter, but also with Reese’s Pieces. It’s Reese’s within Reese’s.

7am – C         Congressman X: Politician tells all in manifesto. (NY Post) – An anonymous congressman has dropped a bombshell election-year book that confirms why Americans hate their national government and have rallied to anti-establishment presidential candidates like Donald Trump. The veteran politician lays bare a rotten and corrupt Congress enslaved by lobbyists and interested only in re-election in an anonymous, 65-page manifesto called “The Confessions of Congressman X.” “Like most of my colleagues, I promise my constituents a lot of stuff I can never deliver,” he admits. “But what the hell? It makes them happy hearing it . . . My main job is to keep my job.” The House member — a Democrat who is either still in Congress or served sometime over the past two decades — says more time is spent fund-raising than reading bills and calls Washington a “sinkhole of leeches.” The title of one chapter sums up his view of congressional leaders: “Harry Reid’s a Pompous Ass,” he says of the Senate Democratic leader.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — DR. LAQUANDRA NESBITT, MD, MPH – DIRECTOR OF DC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH – discussed the Zika virus: what does Zika do to the body, how many cases have we seen in the area of people with Zika, how can it be prevented and what the city is doing to combat it.

7am – E         Metro Update:

• Metro Plans 16-Day Shutdown of Section of Blue, Orange, Silver Lines. (NBC Washington) — Metro is planning a 16-day closure of a stretch of the Blue, Orange and Silver lines after the Federal Transit Administration demanded immediate fixes from the transit system. Last week, Metro released a draft of its SafeTrack plan to focus on repairing certain parts of the system, which will lead to single-tracking and shutdowns in some areas over the next year. But the FTA told Metro in a letter Wednesday that it’s going to need to shuffle its priorities and make immediate repairs to certain sections of track before beginning the SafeTrack plan. That means Metro may now have to move up this massive shutdown project on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines to be the first project.  It will require shutting down the Blue and Silver lines between Eastern Market and Benning Road and the Orange line between Eastern Market and Minnesota Avenue for repairs. Metro plans to move that part of the project up from August to June.
• Red Line Problems:
  • Metrorail Info ‏@Metrorailinfo 1h1 hour ago: Red Line: Trains are no longer single tracking btwn Friendship Heights and Van Ness. Expect residual delays in both directions. 6:20a #wmata
  • LAST NIGHT: Pete Piringer Chief Spokesperson for Montgomery County (MD) Fire & Rescue Service: ‏@mcfrsPIO: Metro Event – Friendship Heights Metro, FFs investigating smoking the tunnel, possible Arcing insulator, DCFD also responding & on scene

8am – A         INTERVIEW — VINCE COGLIANESE – Executive Editor, The Daily Caller

• Donald Trump And Paul Ryan Meet. (Daily Caller) — WASHINGTON — The two leaders of the Republican party — House speaker Paul Ryan and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump — met for a summit Thursday on Capitol Hill, a week after Ryan said he wasn’t ready to support Trump yet. Trump and Ryan gathered Thursday morning at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters along with RNC chairman Reince Priebus. Protestors, spectators and journalists awaited the arrival of Trump, whose motorcade dropped him off at a side entrance. In his weekly press conference after the meeting, Ryan repeatedly said he was “encouraged” by what heard from Trump. But Ryan still didn’t offer an endorsement.

8am – B/C     TAKING CALLS: The Obama administration will tell all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. (NY Times) – In the middle of a legal fight with North Carolina over transgender rights, the Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping decree telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. The letter to school districts that will go out Friday describing what they should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against, signed by officials of the Justice Department and Department of Education, does not have the force of law. But it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — ELIZABETH SCHULTZ – Fairfax County Public School board member

• Schultz knows this issue well because Fairfax County School Board meetings were at the forefront of debate on this issue
• The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping decree telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. The letter to school districts that will go out Friday describing what they should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against, signed by officials of the Justice Department and Department of Education, does not have the force of law. But it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

8am – E         Taking calls!