Jamie Kirchick, Ed Henry and MD Governor Larry Hogan joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 17, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   DC council member caught parking badly again. WASHINGTON (WUSA9) – D.C. council member Jack Evans is once again getting hammered on line for his parking habits. Luchador-11 posted a shot on Reddit of the council member’s Chrysler Sebring with his official license plate parked right in the middle of a crosswalk in what looks like downtown D.C.. People are mad. Not only was Evan’s car parked in a crosswalk, it was blocking the curb cut, making it much harder for anyone in a wheelchair who wanted to get by. Neither Jack Evans nor his staff has offered us any explanation so far for why he had to park there. But a lot of people had some choice words for him, including disability rights advocate D’Arcee Charington Neal. “Can you please consider other people before you go and park your car,” Neal said, hoping Evans would hear him. “There are lots of people who live here and lots of people who need to use the street. That’s just disrespectful.” Evans has been caught parking illegally for years.

5am – D         TRUMP BUDGET NEWS:

• Trump Unveils ‘Hard Power’ Budget That Boosts Military Spending. (NPR) – The Trump administration’s new budget blueprint aims to quantify the president’s  agenda in dollars and cents. The plan, released Thursday morning, calls for significant increases in military and border-security spending, along with corresponding cuts in many other parts of the government. The blueprint was designed to “send a message to our allies and our potential adversaries that this is a strong-power administration,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney explained on Wednesday as he previewed the document in a briefing with reporters.
• WASH POST LEAD FRIDAY:  Republicans not on board with Trump budget… (Washington Post) — Some of President Trump’s best friends in Congress sharply criticized his first budget Thursday, with defense hawks saying the proposed hike in Pentagon spending wasn’t big enough, while rural conservatives and others attacked plans to cut a wide range of federal agencies and programs. The bad mood among Republican critics was tempered by a consensus that the president’s budget wasn’t going very far on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers reminded everybody that they ultimately control the nation’s purse strings.
• Republican health bill passes House Budget Committee by ONE VOTE.. (McClatchy) — WASHINGTON — The much-criticized Obamacare replacement bill passed the House Budget Committee on Thursday with one vote to spare, as three conservative Republicans broke ranks to vote against Paul Ryan’s health care proposal. Reps. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Dave Brat of Virginia and Gary Palmer of Alabama voted against the legislation. Combined with unified Democratic opposition, the bill was reported favorably by a vote of 19-17. “This is the conservative health care vision that we’ve been talking about for years,” Budget Committee chairman Diane Black of Tennessee said before the vote. “To my Republican colleagues who have doubts today, don’t cut off discussion.”
• Trump’s budget cuts $239 million trom IRS despite the Treasury secretary’s public support for boosting its staff. (LA Times) — President Trump’s initial spending plan calls for a $239-million cut to the Internal Revenue Service despite Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s public support for boosting the staff of the beleaguered tax-collection agency. The administration’s budget blueprint released Wednesday said the 2018 funding “preserves key operations” of the IRS. But the plan calls for “diverting resources from antiquated operations that are still reliant on paper-based review in the era of electronic tax filing” to produce “significant savings.” The proposed 2018 spending would be about 2% less than this year’s $11.2 billion, a modest reduction given earlier reports of a possible 14% cut. The IRS, never popular among Republicans, has been in the party’s cross-hairs after the 2015 controversy over the agency’s handling of applications for tax-exempt status by conservative tea party groups. Trump’s proposed 2018 cut is similar to a $236-million spending reduction approved by the House last summer.
• Trump’s budget calls for privatizing air traffic control. (LA Times) — President Trump is calling for privatizing the nation’s air traffic control operations in his budget proposal, a top priority of the airline industry. The proposal says spinning off air traffic operations from the Federal Aviation Administration and placing them under an “independent, nongovernmental organization” would make the system “more efficient and innovative while maintaining safety.” There are about 50,000 commercial airline and other aircraft flights a day in the United States. Both sides of the privatization debate say the system is one of the most complex and safest in the world. The FAA would continue to provide safety oversight of the system under a congressional privatization plan. Airlines have been lobbying vigorously for the change, saying the FAA’s NextGen program to modernize the air traffic system is taking too long and has produced too few benefits. Industry officials say privatization would remove air traffic operations from the uncertainties of the annual congressional budget process, which have hindered the FAA’s ability to make long-term procurement commitments. The National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., the union that represents the FAA’s 14,000 controllers, is also backing privatization.
• Trump’s budget director outrages liberals with blunt answer on climate change. President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney waded through reporter questions on the recently released and very controversial budget proposal by Trump Thursday, but one answer especially shocked some viewers. “Regarding the question as to climate change,” Mulvaney bluntly responded, “I think the president was fairly straight forward – we’re not spending any money on that anymore.” “We consider that to be a waste of your money, to go out there and do that, so that is a specific tie to his campaign.”
• Trump’s NASA Budget Cancels Most Of Obama’s Legacy. (Daily Caller) — President Donald Trump’s NASA budget eliminates much of what former President Barack Obama built in the space agency over the last eight years. Trump’s budget cuts $102 million from the nearly $2 billion NASA spent in 2017 on earth science and global warming research. The White House also proposed cutting the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which could have cost a total of $17.7 billion dollars by 2025. The budget cuts four NASA satellite programs which were conducting global warming and environmental research. It also reduces the amount of money the space agency can spend on environmental science grants.
• Trump wants $4.1 billion for border wall. (Politico) — The Trump administration proposes to kick-start construction of a border wall with $4.1 billion in spending through 2018, an official said Wednesday. Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the president would request $1.5 billion in a supplemental spending bill and $2.6 billion in his fiscal year 2018 budget. The combined $4.1 billion in spending is considerably greater than previous estimates on a down payment for the wall, but well short of its estimated total cost of $22 billion.
• GOP leaders want details before funding Trump’s border wall. (The Hill) — Republican leaders in Congress want more details from President Trump about his proposed border wall before appropriating significant funding for the project. They have questions about the design and how the administration would handle the rights of property owners whose land would be used to build the structure. “What I’d like to see is a plan that we know is going to be implemented that’s going to be effective before we start writing the check,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).  Cornyn said the administration needs to spell out “a layered approach” of “infrastructure, technology and personnel.”
• Federal budget cuts could mean $2.5 billion loss for DC in 2018. WASHINGTON — It still needs Congressional approval, but as proposed, President Donald Trump’s federal budget would have a big impact on the D.C. area. In order to direct a huge new influx of money toward the military and the border wall with Mexico, the budget includes major funding reductions elsewhere, including cuts of 21 percent for the Agriculture and Labor departments, 29 percent for the State Department, and 31 percent for the Environmental Protection Agency.
• OMB Director on Pres. Trump’s hopes for budget: “More money for defense, more money for border enforcement, more money for law enforcement.”  
• OMB Director on budget: “You now have an America first president and it shouldn’t surprise anybody that you have an America first budget.”

5am – E         WIRETAPPING:

• Sean Spicer tells JON KARL that Pres. Trump “stands by” claims that former Pres. Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.
• Sean Spicer Tells CNN Reporter He Has ‘Zero Intelligence’
• ‘It’s stupefying to watch’: Jim Acosta and Jake Tapper stunned by White House’s ‘depressing’ wiretap defense. Acosta noted the White House has “broadened the definition of wiretapping in the days since the president put out that baseless tweet … because the original tweet is a false claim, it’s a falsehood.” “It is a sort of stupefying thing to watch, Jake,” Acosta continued. “The fact that the present will not come out and withdraw this accusation. He clearly made a false accusation aimed at the former president, Barack Obama, that he was wiretapped over at Trump Tower. And why we’re having to pull this out, like we’re pulling teeth, is beyond me.”
• Senate Intelligence Committee finds “no indications” of wiretapping, wider surveillance at Trump Tower. (ABC News) —  Senate Intelligence Committee leaders released a joint statement Thursday saying that they have no reason to believe that President Donald Trump’s wiretapping claims against then-President Barack Obama are true. “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in the statement. They visited CIA headquarters last week and also met with FBI Director James Comey. Both senators have been privy to relevant classified documents.

6am – A/B/C Statue of justice who affirmed slavery being removed from Frederick’s city hall. Roger Taney Bust to Find New Home Saturday: FREDERICK — (AP) A statue of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slavery will be removed from a City Hall courtyard in western Maryland this weekend. Frederick officials announced Thursday that busts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney (TAW-nee) and a bust of Maryland’s first governor and slave owner Thomas Johnson will be moved Saturday. Both will go to Mount Olivet Cemetery, where Johnson is buried. The Taney statue was erected in 1931. He practiced law in Frederick before becoming the nation’s fifth chief justice. Aldermen voted in 2015 to remove the Taney statue, which some find offensive. The Historic Preservation Commission approved moving the statues. The busts will be restored before they’re permanently placed on cemetery grounds. The statue of Taney has been a source of controversy in Frederick for years. Public debate in 2009 prompted the city to add a plaque explaining the Dred Scott decision, which will also be relocated to the cemetery.

6am – D/E     Survey: Nearly half of iPhone users don’t trust iCloud. WASHINGTON — Almost half of iPhone users — 47 percent — in a recent survey said they have little to no confidence in storing personal information on iCloud, according to Clutch, a business-to-business ratings and review company based in D.C. And 15 percent of iPhone users don’t know which features they are automatically backing up onto iCloud servers, the survey found. Despite that skepticism, Apple’s iCloud storage service for iOS devices has at least 782 million users and is one of the most popular cloud storage services in the U.S. According to Clutch, industry experts said that users’ fears over iCloud’s security may be highly exaggerated.

6am – F         ST PATRICKS DAY

• Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.
• White House Fountain Goes Green. The White House celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by dyeing its fountain water on the South Lawn bright green. (March 16)
• Donald Trump hosts Irish P.M. Enda Kenny for St. Patrick’s Day. President Trump on Thursday hosted Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the White House for its annual St. Patrick’s Day events, a tradition dating back to the 1950s that celebrates the bonds between the two countries. Mr. Trump welcomed Mr. Kenny, officially titled Taoiseach Kenny, in the Oval Office for bilateral meetings. All in attendance, except Mr. Trump, wore kelly green for the occasion. “I love Ireland,” Mr. Trump said when Irish news reports shouted questions about whether he’d visit Ireland during his presidency. “I really love Ireland,” the president continued. “I’ll be back.” Mr. Kenny wore a kelly-green tie. Mr. Trump wore a bluish-green striped tie. The St. Patrick’s Day schedule included a breakfast with Vice President Mike Pence and a luncheon later at the Capitol.
• Trump is lobbied by Irish prime minister to let country’s 50,000 illegal immigrants in U.S ‘stand in the light’ – and president says: ‘We love Ireland’  // President Donald Trump predicted that his administration would have a ‘very, very great long-term relationship’ with Ireland after meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny for the first time this morning at the White House.  But then in a coded message about the estimated 50,000 Irish living in the U.S. illegally, he raised the topic of illegals with Irish passports – carefully never using the phrase illegal or undocumented but talking about being able to ‘stand out in the light’.  ‘We would like this to be sorted,’ he said.’It would remove a burden of so many people that they can stand out in the light and say, now I am free to contribute to America as I know I can. And that’s what people want.’ Later in the speech   there are Irish citizens living in the country who want to ‘play their part for America, if you like, who want to make America great.’
• Where to find lucky St. Patrick’s Day food, drink deals. (USA Today) – From McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes to Krispy Kreme’s green doughnuts, the fast-food and restaurant industries won’t be holding back Friday when it comes to trying to cash in on what owners hope will be record spending by St. Patrick’s Day celebrants. The National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend more of their own “green” for this year’s holiday celebrations — $5.3 billion — than in any of the previous 13 years since it started monitoring the holiday. That’s an average of $37.92 per reveler among the more than 139 million people who are expected to mark St. Patty’s. That’s up from last year’s $35.37.  The big winners, always always, are expected to be restaurants and bars, since the day is often celebrated with corned beef and lots of alcohol.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JAMES KIRCHICK – Foreign Policy Institute fellow and author of the new book “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age” – preview Merkel’s meeting with Trump.

7am – B/C     Sean Spicer: President Trump Wants Press Corps To ‘Determine’ Where He Donates His Salary (Daily Caller) – Sean Spicer suggested Monday that President Trump will let the White House press corps decide where he will donate his presidential salary. Spicer told the press briefing POTUS’ “intention right now is to donate his salary at the end of the year, and he has kindly asked you all determine where that goes.” “He wants to donate it to charity, and he’d love your help to determine where it should go.” When someone in the room suggested “journalism scholarships,” Spicer responded “that would be a great way.” “The way that we can avoid scrutiny is to have the press corps determine where it should go,” the White House press secretary added, drawing laughs from the crowd. “In all seriousness his view is he made a pledge to the American people.”

7am – D         Rand Paul Responds to John McCain: Senator From Arizona Is “Unhinged” and “Past His Prime.” Sen. Rand Paul responds to attacks from Sen. John McCain on this morning’s ‘Morning Joe.’ ON Thursday, Paul released this statement: “Currently, the United States has troops in dozens of countries and is actively fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen (with the occasional drone strike in Pakistan). In addition, the United States is pledged to defend 28 countries in NATO. It is unwise to expand the monetary and military obligations of the United States given the burden of our $20 trillion debt.”

7am – E         FOOD NEWS:

• McDonald’s on anti-Trump tweet: Account was hacked. (USA Today) — A McDonald’s Twitter account tweeted Thursday at President Trump, saying he was a “disgusting excuse of a President.” The tweet also said that it would love to have Barack Obama back and that Trump has tiny hands.McDonald’s @McDonaldsCorp: @realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama, also you have tiny hands  It was taken down several minutes later. According to McDonald’s spokeswoman Becca Hary, the fast food giant’s Twitter account was hacked.

• MILK IS RACIST: Is milk racist? A millennial writer thinks so – College student at California State University — Long Beach, wrote an op-ed in her school’s newspaper Monday claiming that milk is a symbol of racism and white nationalism. Samantha Diaz, a staff writer for The Daily 49er, said that she believes her fellow millennials are being brainwashed into thinking milk is merely a drink people consume to strengthen their bones. But Diaz contends milk is actually a symbol of hate that many people haven’t considered.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – ED HENRY – Fox News Chief National Correspondent; and author of upcoming book “42 Faith” – discussed the latest political news of the day: Health care fighting, Wiretapping and Budget battle.

8am – B         Bad Driving News:

• DC council member caught parking badly again. WASHINGTON (WUSA9) – D.C. council member Jack Evans is once again getting hammered on line for his parking habits. Luchador-11 posted a shot on Reddit of the council member’s Chrysler Sebring with his official license plate parked right in the middle of a crosswalk in what looks like downtown D.C.. People are mad. Not only was Evan’s car parked in a crosswalk, it was blocking the curb cut, making it much harder for anyone in a wheelchair who wanted to get by. Neither Jack Evans nor his staff has offered us any explanation so far for why he had to park there.
• Maryland State Police: Multiple drivers injured from flying ice off other uncleaned vehicles. (Fox 5) — COLLEGE PARK, Md. – This week’s winter weather has caused dangerous driving conditions – after the storm. One of the biggest problems seen is drivers who have failed to clear off their cars and sending sheets of ice flying onto other vehicles on the roads. Maryland State Police said troopers at their College Park barracks have received at least 20 reports of vehicles being damaged over the last few days because of this problem. Three people have sustained eye injuries from shards of glass from their windshields after being hit from flying ice debris. Larry Slagle, a commercial driver and volunteer firefighter from Chestertown, Maryland, said his windshield was shattered from flying ice from another vehicle on Wednesday as he was leaving Baltimore driving home on southbound Interstate 95. “My only option was to try to steer as far to the left side of the lane towards the truck as I could,” he recalled. “Unfortunately, it nailed me on the right side of the windshield and went off like a cannon, and I felt flying glass shards hit me in the face. Thankfully I did not get any glass in my eye.”

8am – C         Snoop DOGG News:

• Snoop Dogg’s ‘nephew’ makes VILE threat against Melania. Cue feminist outrage in…Oh, never mind. Wannabe rapper Bow Wow threatened First Lady Melania Trump in a vile tweet. Like a cowardly misogynist, Bow Wow (real name: Shad Moss) lashed out at Melania in order to get back at President Trump for slamming his “uncle,” rapper Snoop Dogg. “Ayo @RealDonaldTrump, shut your punk *ss up talking sh*t about my uncle @SnoopDogg before we pimp your wife and make her work for us,” Bow Wow tweeted.
• Bow Wow deletes tweet threatening to ‘pimp’ Melania Trump. (Washington Times) — Rapper Shad Moss, better known by his stage name Bow Wow, has deleted a highly charged tweet that threatened to “pimp” first lady Melania Trump. Bow Wow, formerly Lil’ Bow Wow, made the comment Wednesday after President Trump criticized Snoop Dogg for a new music video featuring a mock assassination of a clown dressed as Mr. Trump. “Ayo @realDonaldTrump shut your punk a— up talking s—t about my uncle @SnoopDogg before we pimp your wife and make her work for us,” Bow Wow tweeted for his 3.19 million followers. Within 24 hours, the tweet was deleted, but Bow Wow has yet to issue an apology.

• Snoop Dogg Responds To President Trump’s Tweet. Snoop Dogg responded Wednesday to President Donald Trump’s tweet calling him out over his latest anti-Trump video. “Now ya’ll want to ask me questions and interview me but guess what, I’ve got nothing to say mate, ” Snoop said in a video he shared on Instagram with his 15.7 million followers.   Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted that there would be an “outcry” from people had the video for Snoop’s song “Lavender” shown him shooting Barack Obama instead of a clown dressed as Trump. “Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time,” Trump tweeted.

8am – D        INTERVIEW – MARYLAND GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN

• Hogan touts legislative agenda in late-session push. Gov. Larry Hogan is pleased with the passage of some items from his 2017 legislative agenda but, at a press conference Wednesday, offered scathing rebukes to some of his political opponents, whom he accused of playing politics at the expense of Marylanders. Hogan commended the passage of several bills as examples of bipartisanship, including the Victims of Sex Trafficking Act, the Clean Water Commerce Act, and the More Jobs for Marylanders Act, which would provide a tax break to manufacturing companies in high-unemployment areas. In contrast, he slammed Democrats in the legislature for pressing forward with a bill that expands paid sick leave after effectively defeating his bill on the same subject. Hogan said the Democrats’ sick leave bill would be “dead on arrival” if passed and sent to his desk. He said Democrats were trying to manipulate the issue to “put points on the board” that could be used against him in the 2018 election.
• Hogan Criticizes Worker Sick Leave Bills, House Budget. With 26 days left in this year’s Maryland General Assembly session, Gov. Larry Hogan told reporters that he is pleased some of his agenda is moving forward, However, Hogan criticized the mandatory worker sick leave bills now being considered by lawmakers. Both the House of Delegates and state Senate are considering bills that require businesses provide paid sick leave for companies with at least 15 employees. “If either of these job-killing bills reaches my desk, I will veto them immediately, because they will simply kill business and jobs,” Hogan said at an afternoon news conference.
• Hogan criticized a $2.4-million cut in the State Police budget, which cuts one class of 50 cadets at the Maryland State Police Academy. “It’s simply wrong to cut the State Police at a time when there is such violence, and a heroin epidemic.  It is simply unconscionable,” Hogan said
• REDISTRICTING: Hogan pushes for redistricting reform. ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — At a press conference Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan sought to rally support for a bill that would set up an independent, non-partisan committee to handle the redistricting process. Hogan called the state’s current partisan redistricting process “disgraceful” and lambasted the legislature for not acting to implement reforms. Hogan has made passage of the Redistricting Reform Act of 2017 one of his primary goals ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial election. The governor wants to remove lawmakers’ power over redistricting and hand the process over to an independent commission. Such reforms are strongly opposed by Democrats, who owe some of their dominance in state politics to the party’s power to favor itself when drawing legislative districts.
• HEROIN, OPIOID CRISIS: Md. Gov. Hogan declares state of emergency in heroin, opioid crisis
• FRACKING: – Fracking ban moves forward in Maryland House, fate in Senate unclear
• AG POWERS: Larry Hogan, Maryland governor, blasts attorney general powers expansion.
• Second federal judge blocks Trump’s new travel ban. ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday morning temporarily blocked the 90-day ban on immigration for citizens of six countries in President Donald Trump’s executive order, dealing another blow to the president’s revised travel ban. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who filed the motion in his state to challenge the order, argued that it is instead a “great example of executive overreach.”
• ST PATTYS DAY: Friday is St. Patrick’s Day – Will Governor Hogan be celebrating?

8am – E         SPORTS NEWS:

• MARCH MADNESS
• Pentagon tells its staff not to watch March Madness games because streaming could overwhelm computers which are critical to national defense: (Daily Mail) –  The Defense Department has cautioned its staff not to stream March Madness games on Pentagon computers, warning that the network could be overwhelmed. ‘March Madness is officially upon us,’ the Joint Service Provider (JSP), which handles IT services for the Pentagon, said in the email. The unclassified communication was sent to employees at the Department of Defense, and later obtained by CBS News.  The JSP acknowledged that staff would be watching the tournament at work, but warned that engineers would be ‘closely monitoring bandwidth consumption’. ‘Your JSP support team acknowledges and appreciates that college basketball fans within the DoD are excited to cheer on their favorite teams, update brackets, and otherwise obsess over the Big Dance’, the email continues.
• LOCAL TEAMS:
• No. 10 VCU eliminated from #NCAATournament by No. 7 Saint Mary’s, 85-77
• No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s eliminated from NCAA Tournament by No. 1 Villanova, 76-56
• #6 Maryland eliminated from NCAA Tournament by #11 Xavier, 76-65
• MD Gov Larry Hogan has filled out his bracket: ANNAPOLIS — (WMAL) Maryland Governor Larry Hogan took a few minutes to fill out his college hoops bracket. It’s no secret who he’d like to see win it all. Larry Hogan @LarryHogan: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…#GoTerps” 12:00 PM – 16 Mar 2017
• Md. teen benched during playoff game for wearing hijab.  CATONSVILLE, Md. — A Montgomery County basketball player who played all season wearing her hijab was benched by a referee at the regional girls basketball finals over a rarely enforced rule restricting what headgear players can wear during a game. “My coach had pulled me aside, and she had said that she was sorry that I couldn’t play. But there was a state rule saying that I have to have a letter to play with my hijab on,” said Hayes, who is Muslim. Hayes said she cried when she learned why she was benched. Three minutes before tip off, Coach Donita Adams said she was informed that Hayes was not eligible to take the court.
• Deadline passes for U.S. women’s hockey players to end their boycott. (LA TIMES) – Faced with a Thursday afternoon deadline, members of the powerhouse U.S. women’s hockey team have chosen to continue their boycott of the upcoming world championships. The players, who announced their decision to sit out the tournament earlier this week, were given until 2 p.m. to notify USA Hockey if they had changed their minds.