Tom Fitton, Steve Kastenbaum, Ray Stagich, , Trevor Matich, Ledecky coach Sue Chen and Jake Tapper joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

 

5am – A/B     DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON — President of Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption

• Top Clinton Foundation Official Asked Hillary’s State Department For Favors For Associates, Donors

5am – C         INTERVIEW — RAY STAGICH – Weather Channel Meterologist

• HEAT ADVISORY: Today|A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 94F. * HEAT INDEX VALUES…AROUND 105 DEGREES ….Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
• WASHINGTON POST: Hot and very humid, 30-40% chance of PM storms. Highs: Low to middle 90s. With afternoon highs in the low to middle 90s and tropical dew points in the middle 70s, we’ll probably see the afternoon heat index peaking in the 100-105 range. Partly-cloudy skies may produce a few afternoon or evening thunderstorms (30-40% chance), which could be slow-moving with torrential downpours. Confidence: Medium

5am – D         Major fire engulfs Silver Spring apartment building; several missing. WASHINGTON — About 30 people were sent to area hospitals and 5 to 7 people are unaccounted for after a “possible explosion” and three-alarm fire at a Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment building as Wednesday turned into Thursday. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein says the fire was reported a bit before midnight and has largely damaged two four-level apartment buildings in the Flower Branch Apartments — 8701 and 8703 Piney Branch Road, near University Boulevard.

5am – E        

6am – A/B/C National Anthem Etiquette:

• Michael Phelps explains why he laughed during the National Anthem. While an emotional Michael Phelps was standing atop the podium during the medal ceremony for the men’s 200-meter butterfly event, he burst out in laughter toward the end of the National Anthem. Phelps, who had just won his 20th gold medal, was teary-eyed, but suddenly looked over to the left and burst out in laughter. Then, at the end of the song, he looked back over and pointed. Here’s what Phelps told NBC after winning yet another gold, his 21st, in the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay: “My boys from Baltimore were down on the other end, and back in Maryland, we all say “O!” for the Orioles during that part of the National Anthem. And all of the sudden I hear them roar “O!” and I knew exactly where it came from, and I just lost it because those guys came down from Baltimore and New York City to be here, and it’s just special to see those guys in the stands.”
• Gymnast Gabby Douglas resurrects the debate over how to act during the national anthem. During the medal ceremony for her gold-winning USA gymnastics team on Tuesday at the Rio Olympic Arena, Douglas failed to show what many considered appropriate reverence. As her four teammates stood at full attention with their hands over their hearts, Douglas was slumped with her hands held casually in front of her as if she had just finished last.  Even during moments when she showed a smile, her body language was disconnected. The difference in aura with the other American gymnasts was palpable. Afterward she said she was simply “overwhelmed.” It wasn’t long before an angry Twitterverse kicked into gear: Some accused her of being unpatriotic. One said she had no excuse not to honor the flag of the country that gave her the opportunity to compete.

6am – D         Hollywood & Gender Swapping:

• Hollywood’s Latest Obsession: Gender-Swapping. This is what happens when fresh ideas are scarce in the world of film. (LifeZette) After intense criticism of rebooting the classic 1984 “Ghostbusters” film with a female cast, the director Paul Feig says he won’t re-do another classic film. But Hollywood has not stopped there in breaking our warm nostalgic memories of 1980s movies. Yes, they have decided to ruin another 1984 film: “Splash.” Now Hollywood is replacing Hannah’s mermaid role with a new gender-flipped reboot of Channing Tatum playing a merman.  Yes, that’s right. A merman. Even Steve Martin’s classic 1980s films are not safe from the unoriginal gender-bending. MGM announced last week it will remake the 1988 film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” Only this time, the male roles of two con men trying to go after a rich woman’s fortune, originally played by Steve Martin and Michael Caine, will go to two woman targeting a rich man. One of the women will be played by comedienne Rebel Wilson. There is even talk of a female James Bond. Apparently, the Bond spy girls are not enough. For the sake of feminism, we need a historically masculine franchise to be evolved to a hard-drinking, promiscuous female.
• ‘Ghostbusters’ Heading for $70M-Plus Loss, Sequel Unlikely.  Confronted by tepid box office for the reboot, the studio will instead focus on animated spinoffs. Immediately upon the opening of Ghostbusters in mid-July, top Sony executives boldly declared a sequel to Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 classic was a given. “While nothing has been officially announced yet, there’s no doubt in my mind it will happen,” said Rory Bruer, president of  worldwide distribution at Sony.
• All-female “Ocean’s 8” cast revealed, featuring Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. An all new team is assembling to pull of a heist, and this time it’s the ladies’ turn. “Ocean’s 8,” the all-female spin-off of the George Clooney caper franchise that started with “Ocean’s 11,” will start shooting in New York this October under the direction of Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit,” “The Hunger Games”), according to Deadline. Ross will be directing an all-star cast including Oscar winners Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway, as well as Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter.

6am – E         Major fire engulfs Silver Spring apartment building; several missing.WASHINGTON — About 30 people were sent to area hospitals and 5 to 7 people are unaccounted for after a “possible explosion” and three-alarm fire at a Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment building as Wednesday turned into Thursday. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein says the fire was reported a bit before midnight and has largely damaged two four-level apartment buildings in the Flower Branch Apartments — 8701 and 8703 Piney Branch Road, near University Boulevard. Goldstein says that people’s injuries range from minor to severe, and that three firefighters have also suffered minor injuries from heat exhaustion. About 90 people have been displaced, and are being sheltered at the Long Branch Community Center.

7am – A         Man, 20, captured while climbing Trump Tower. (USA Today) — A 20-year-old Virginia man scaling Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan with suction cups and straps Wednesday was safely pulled in through a window by police, ending a several-hour stunt that got him to the 21st floor and on to the television screens of millions of people worldwide. His motive, according to police: he wanted to climb to the top of the tower and eventually get a personal meeting with Donald Trump. The Republican presidential candidate responded via Twitter late Wednesday, writing, “Great job today by the NYPD in protecting the people and saving the climber.” New York cops, some outfitted with rappelling gear, snatched the man moments after he ascended to a tight spot near a large window removed by police. Earlier, they raised a ladder in an effort to stop him, but closed it up as he moved higher. They also broke windows above his route and inflated giant cushions below him in case he tumbled off the 58-story Trump headquarters.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – STEVE KASTENBAUM — Correspondent in RIO covering the Olympics

• Rio Olympics: Here’s What Happened Wednesday
• Katie Ledecky and the U.S. 4×200 relay team won the gold medal Wednesday, to the surprise of no one. Since the event became a part of the Olympics in 1996, the Americans have won five of six. Ledecky anchored a squad that included Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith and Maya DiRado to a 1.84 second victory over Australia, the only other country to triumph in the event at the Summer Games. Canada was third. The Americans were trailing by 89-hundredths of a second when Ledecky hit the water. She split 1 minute 53.74 seconds, to stop the clock at 7:43.03.
• Daryl Homer Wins Rare American Silver in Fencing. Daryl Homer of the United States won the silver medal in men’s saber, missing a chance to become the first American man to win an Olympics fencing gold medal in more than a century. Homer, who fences out of the Manhattan Fencing Center and was seeded 10th, beat fencers from Kazakhstan, Germany and Iran on the way to the final.
• Men’s basketball: The United States had an unaccustomed scare in men’s basketball, beating Australia by only 98-88. The U.S. trailed by 5 at the half and needed some big 3’s late by Carmelo Anthony to win. Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs led Australia with 30 points; Anthony had 31 for the United States.
• Men’s gymnastics all-around: Kohei Uchimura of Japan, often called the greatest gymnast ever, retained his title. He delivered a 15.8 with a difficult high bar routine to overtake Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine on the final apparatus. The practically unbeatable Uchimura has also won the last six world championship all-around titles.
• No Medal for U.S. Rugby Sevens: The American men lost to Fiji, 24-19, and were eliminated from the competition. The United States missed by the narrowest of margins: Its point differential, plus-18, was just 1 short of that of New Zealand, which grabbed the last spot in the quarterfinals.
• Volleyball: Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross win a close one, advance to Round of 16. RIO DE JANEIRO — For once at this Olympics, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross had the crowd on their side. A large crowd of American fans, many waving flags, filled up the stadium at Copacabana Beach on Wednesday night, eager to support the pair in their final group match. Walsh Jennings and Ross might have needed that support — it took the duo three sets to dispatch Switzerland’s Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Verge-Depre 21-13, 22-24, 15-12 in a tense match. It was the first set dropped by the Americans this Olympics, and only the second set dropped by Walsh Jennings in her Olympic career.
• Rio 2016: The Green Water Spreads to Water Polo Pool. FINA says change occurred when tanks ran out of proper chemicals used in the water-treatment process. (WSJ) — The Rio Olympics’ green-water crisis claimed another victim: the water polo pool. Officials scrambled to contain the new embarrassment, which shocked television viewers and spectators Tuesday when the pool hosting the women’s 10-meter synchronized diving finals turned a deep, bright green. Wednesday, even as officials insisted they had the problem under control, they acknowledged that the problem was also affecting the adjoining water polo pool, which also displayed a greenish tint. “Yesterday mid-afternoon there was a sudden decrease in the alkalinity of the pool,” said Mario Andrada, spokesman for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee. “Obviously, the people in charge of maintaining the pool and of checking could and should have done more intensive tests.” Andrada said the pool color would get back to normal “very shortly.” However, he added, Wednesday’s rain in Rio was complicating things. Several possible explanations emerged Wednesday, though not all seemed to fit together. FINA, swimming and diving’s world governing body, said the change occurred, because “the water tanks ran out of some of the chemicals used in the water-treatment process. As a result the pH level of the water was outside the usual range, causing the discoloration.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW — ROD WHEELER — Former D.C. Homicide Detective

• DOJ/Baltimore Police report released yesterday:
• Justice Department to Release Blistering Report of Racial Bias by Baltimore Police. (Del Wilber/Baltimore Sun) — Baltimore police routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force, according to the findings of a long-anticipated Justice Department probe to be released Wednesday. The practices overwhelmingly affected the city’s black residents in low-income neighborhoods, according to the 163-page report. In often scathing language, the report identified systemic problems and cited detailed examples. The investigators found that “supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as directing a shift to arrest ‘all the black hoodies’ in a neighborhood.” They also found that black residents were more likely to be stopped and searched as pedestrians and drivers even though police were more likely to find illegal guns, illicit drugs and other contraband on white residents.
• Mysterious Death of DNC Staffer in DC: WikiLeaks offers $20K for info on DNC staffer’s killing. Police say DNC staffer Seth Rich was shot multiple times at around 4:19 a.m. Sunday, July 10, while walking to his apartment in the Northwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Bloomingdale. At the time, police say they believed Rich could have been killed in an attempted robbery, though nothing was stolen. The WikiLeaks announcement, however, appears to be related to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that Rich’s death could have been politically motivated. Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange seemed to suggest during a Dutch TV interview on Tuesday that Rich was the source of the leak of DNC officials’ emails.

 7am – E        Silver Spring Explosion: MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — Firefighters are on the scene at an apartment complex in Montgomery County where an “explosion” and fire left “multiple” people injured, according to fire officials. As of 5 a.m. Thursday morning, MCFRS Chief Scott Goldstein says at least 5-7 residents are still unaccounted for. Some of the injuries were the result of people jumping out of windows, according to Chief Goldstein. Children were also reportedly being dropping from windows for fear of their safety, while others were able to access work ladders from trucks in the neighborhood. The incident, which was originally reported on Twitter by Montgomery County Fire’s Pete Piringer around midnight Wednesday, resulted in a raging three-alarm fire at the Flower Branch Apartments in the 8600 block of Piney Branch Road. It’s unclear at this time if there are any fatalities, according to Piringer who also says all occupants have not yet been accounted for.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — TREVOR MATICH — Redskins elite long snapper and WMAL’s Redskins analyst

• Redskins and Falcons will kick off the 2016 NFL preseason on Thursday night in the Georgia Dome.

8am – B         INTERVIEW — SUE CHEN — Assistant coach of the GOLD program of Nationa’s Capital Swim Club and Head coach of age group program at Georgetown prep. She is a coach at the Nation’s Capital Swim Club. She works with Ledecky’s head coach Bruce Gemmell and his students.

• Highlighting the success of local athlete Katie Ledecky
• Katie Ledecky and the U.S. 4×200 relay team won the gold medal Wednesday, to the surprise of no one. Since the event became a part of the Olympics in 1996, the Americans have won five of six. Ledecky anchored a squad that included Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith and Maya DiRado to a 1.84 second victory over Australia, the only other country to triumph in the event at the Summer Games. Canada was third. The Americans were trailing by 89-hundredths of a second when Ledecky hit the water. She split 1 minute 53.74 seconds, to stop the clock at 7:43.03.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of “The Lead” and “State of the Union” on CNN

• Trump fuels a media furor with Second Amendment comments on Clinton
• Newly released Clinton emails shed light on relationship between State Dept. and Clinton Foundation
• Newly released Clinton emails shed light on relationship between State Dept. and Clinton Foundation.Hillary played favorites with huge number of Clinton Foundation donors

8am – E         Entertainment News:

• Ed Sheeran sued for allegedly copying Marvin Gaye classic Let’s Get It On. Ed Sheeran has been accused of copying elements of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On for his hit single Thinking Out Loud. The track, which became the first to spend a full year in the UK top 40 and has been streamed more than 1 billion times on YouTube, became Sheeran’s first number one single, and went on to top charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia and South Africa. It also won song of the year at the 2016 Grammy awards. An infringement lawsuit has now been filed by Ed Townsend, who composed and co-wrote the lyrics to Let’s Get It On in 1973, according to the complaint filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. Townsend has requested the suit is assessed at a jury trial, and alleges the harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements central to Gaye’s track formed the structure of Sheeran’s hit. “The defendants copied the ‘heart’ of ‘Let’s’ and repeated it continuously throughout Thinking,” the lawsuit said according to Reuters. “The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions of Thinking are substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition of ‘Let’s.’”
• CBS’ ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Will Star Female Lead, Creator Reveals Major Clues to Series’ Plot.  Creator Bryan Fuller took the stage on Wednesday at the network’s summer Television Critics Association press day to reveal coveted intel on the upcoming 13-episode original series — and he didn’t disappoint. Discovery, which debuts on CBS in January before launching new episodes on CBS All Access, will feature a female lead, who will not be a captain at the start. Though no casting news was announced — expect it to come in October when production begins — Fuller gave insight into what he’s looking for with the main character, which includes the intent to cast a diverse actress. “We haven’t cast her yet so we don’t know what level of diversity she will be. That is forefront in our minds,” Fuller said, sharing that he spoke with Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, while creating the character. “We’ve seen six series now from captains’ points of view and to see a character from a different perspective on a starship who has a different dynamic, relationship with the captain, with subordinates felt like it was going to give us richer context to have different types of stories with that character. It is ensemble, but we do have that main female protagonist.”