Amb. John Bolton and Gordon Chang joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B     Half of US working families are living paycheck to paycheck. More than seven years after the Great Recession officially ended, there is yet more depressing research that indicates at least half of Americans are vulnerable to financial disaster. Some 50 percent of people are woefully unprepared for a financial emergency, new research finds. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans (19 percent) have nothing set aside to cover an unexpected emergency, while nearly 1 in 3 Americans (31 percent) don’t have at least $500 set aside to cover an unexpected emergency expense, according to a survey released Tuesday by HomeServe USA, a home repair service. A separate survey released Monday by insurance company MetLife found that 49 percent of employees are “concerned, anxious or fearful about their current financial well-being.”

5am – C         US Senate set to vote Thursday on limiting Supreme Court nominee debate. WASHINGTON – The US Senate is expected to vote at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday on whether to limit debate and move toward the final confirmation of President Donald Trump’s choice of federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to take a seat on the US Supreme Court.  Democrats are expected to thwart the Republican effort by denying the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to advance Gorsuch. If so, Republicans are expected to take the rare step of changing Senate rules so that they can advance the nomination with a minimum of 51 Republican votes, which would clear the way for Gorsuch’s confirmation on Friday.

5am – D         BANNON NEWS:

• SLATE: White House: Bannon Has Never Been to an NSC Meeting, Will Continue Attending NSC Meetings
• HUFFINGTON POST: Jared Kushner Helped Push Steve Bannon Out Of The NSC. Reports of tension between the president’s two closest advisers are the latest intrigue to beset the Trump White House.
• LA TIMES: Trump removes Stephen Bannon from National Security Council in staff shake-up. President Trump removed his controversial chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, from the powerful National Security Council in a high-level staff reshuffle that consolidated the power of White House national security advisor H.R. McMaster. On Wednesday, White House officials similarly cast the ouster of Bannon from the NSC as insignificant. They said he had not attended many council meetings since he was given a regular seat on Jan. 28, shortly after Trump took office.

5am – E         Trump, Citing No Evidence, Suggests Susan Rice Committed Crime. (NY Times) — WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser, may have committed a crime by seeking to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials by United States spy agencies, repeating an assertion his allies in the news media have been making since last week. Mr. Trump gave no evidence to support his claim, and current and former intelligence officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations have said they do not believe Ms. Rice’s actions were unusual or unlawful. The president repeatedly rebuffed attempts by two New York Times reporters to learn more about what led him to the conclusion, saying he would talk more about it “at the right time.” The allegation by a sitting president was a remarkable escalation — and, his critics say, the latest effort to change the story at a time when his nascent administration has been consumed by questions about any role his associates may have played in a Russian campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.

6am – A/B/C Barry Manilow Reveals Why He Didn’t Come Out for Decades: I Thought I Would ‘Disappoint’ Fans If They Knew I Was Gay. Pop legend Barry Manilow opens up for the first time about coming out, finding love, and surviving showbiz for 50 years.  For decades Barry Manilow gave the world timeless hits, while keeping his own world a total secret. Now at 73 years old, the music legend is opening up about his life, struggles and, for the first time, his sexuality. Fiercely private, the pop icon recently welcomed PEOPLE into his Palm Springs home for an exclusive interview and photo shoot with his manager husband Garry Kief — and talked for the first time about their nearly 40-year romance. Says Manilow, “I’m so private. I always have been.” Born Barry Alan Pincus in 1943 and raised by his single mother Edna Manilow, in Brooklyn, Manilow knew early on his first love was music. His second love was his high school sweetheart Susan Deixler. “I was in love with Susan,” says Manilow of the woman he married after graduating high school, “I just was not ready for marriage.” The star maintains he wasn’t struggling with his sexuality at the time of their one-year matrimony. “I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats — I was too young. I wasn’t ready to settle down.” Indeed, Manilow’s personal life took a backseat as he pursued a career in music, writing jingles to pay the bills (State Farm, Band-Aid and others still use them today) and in 1971, taking a gig arranging music for and accompanying a young Bette Midler at the gay hotspot the Continental Baths. He produced the diva’s first two albums and when her career took off, his followed suit. After skyrocketing to fame in 1974 with his pop-rock ballad “Mandy,” the Brooklyn native’s star only got brighter with the release of classics like “Looks Like We Made It,” “Copacabana (At the Copa)” and “Can’t Smile Without You.” Then in 1978, he met Kief — a TV executive and Houston native — and “I knew that this was it,” says Manilow. “I was one of the lucky ones. I was pretty lonely before that.”

6am – D         ICE Arrests 82 People During DC and Virginia Operation. WASHINGTON — (WMAL) US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 82 people from 26 different countries in DC, Virginia and Maryland between March 26-30. Sixty eight of the suspects had previous criminal records for crimes such as armed robberies and drug violations. Other suspects had ties to MS-13, expired visas, and were wanted by foreign law enforcement. ICE released certain arrests:

• On March 26, ERO officers arrested a 50-year-old citizen and national of Somalia in Falls Church, Virginia. He was identified as a second lieutenant in command of the Somalian National Security Service, an organization known for human rights abuses, rape, torture and extrajudicial killings. He also has a felony drug conviction.
• On March 26, ERO officers arrested a 40-year-old citizen and national of Trinidad and Tobago in Norfolk, Virginia. He has felony drug distribution and firearm possession convictions. On March 28, ERO officers arrested a 45-year-old citizen and national of the Dominican Republic in Chesterfield, Virginia. He has felony convictions for sale of a cocaine and attempted robbery.
• On March 29, ERO officers arrested a 22-year-old citizen and national of Honduras in Fairfax, Virginia. He has felony convictions for stolen goods and grand larceny.
• On March 29, ERO officers arrested a 34-year-old citizen and national of El Salvador in Chesterfield for being a documented MS-13 gang member who was previously removed from the United States in 2006.
• On March 30, ERO officers arrested a 57-year-old citizen and national of Honduras in Richmond, Virginia. She has felony convictions for grand larceny and inflicting corporal injury to spouse.

6am – E         Critter News:

• STOLEN: Therapy dog “Sparky” was stolen outside a northeast Safeway. Family is ramping up search after new tips…

• DC family searching for therapy dog believed to have been stolen outside Safeway store. (Fox 5) — WASHINGTON – The search continues for a missing therapy dog that was swiped outside a grocery store in Washington D.C. back in January. The dog’s owner faces mental and health challenges and said the dog provides companionship and much more. Even though the dog went missing earlier this year, his family started getting new tips this week. Sparky was last seen near the glass sliding doors at a Safeway store in the 1600 block of Maryland Avenue in Northeast D.C. His owner was inside, but believes the grocery store’s surveillance cameras may have captured the dog thief. She said Sparky was stolen even though someone was reportedly supposed to be watching the dog. Sparky is described as a miniature schnauzer with a brown, black and white coat. He is well known in his Northeast D.C. neighborhood for playing catch.
• Guantánamo has a feral cat problem. Operation Git-Meow to the rescue. GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — This base best known for its wartime prison has cats. Lots of cats. Kitty cats. Dumpster cats. House cats. Abandoned cats. Foster cats. Stray cats. Tabby cats. Cuban cats. And, by the estimate of activists who want to do something about it, it has upward of 500 feral cats. In an unusual alliance, some troops, civilians and visitors have teamed up with the global animal rescue group SPCA International and are asking the Navy’s permission to sterilize the cats. They’re also setting up a non-profit organization to help soldiers or sailors on temporary assignment here adopt them and take the home. The group’s name? Operation Git-Meow. “I have taken care of over 40, actually 50, cats in about three and a half years,” says Git-Meow founder and foster-cat mom Tina Marie Parr, the wife of a base contractor.  She has built a small shelter in her backyard and is scouting for something larger, more permanent. “The reason I do it is to help the population of cats here to be able to get some decent homes.”

6am – F         Video Gaming Becomes a Scholarship Sport at University of Utah. The University of Utah will become the first big-time sports school to offer scholarships for competitive video gaming, so far the most high-profile entry into collegiate esports. Backed by the Salt Lake City school’s video game development program, Utah’s first varsity esports team will play Riot Games’ popular League of Legends and compete in Riot’s collegiate league. More teams in other games will be announced this year. Utah is the first school in the “Power Five” — the five richest athletic conferences in college sports — to offer scholarships for video gaming, lending a high-profile endorsement to the the rapidly-growing industry. “We want others schools to join us,” said A.J. Dimick, who will run the new esports program. “Let’s move this along together.” Funding for the program will come directly from Utah’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering department, which The Princeton Review named the country’s best video game design program in 2016.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — AMB. JOHN BOLTON – former United Nations Ambassador

• PREVIEW: Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Meet. Donald Trump warns China the US is ready to tackle North Korea
• Haley threatens ‘our own action’ in Syria if UN doesn’t act. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley strongly condemned Russia and the Syrian government Wednesday
• Susan Rice / unmasking

7am – B         Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: No HS diploma without a plan for graduation. (CBS News) — Chicago high school students may soon need to create a plan for their future in order to graduate. Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday to discuss his new proposal, which would require students to develop a post-high school plan before receiving a diploma. Chicago would be the first city to adopt such a requirement if the measure is approved by the city’s board of education. “We live in a period of time where you earn what you learn,” Emanuel said. “The school system of K through 12 is not applicable to the world and the economy and the world that our high school students are graduating to. So we’re moving to a pre-K to college model.”

Under the proposal, all Chicago Public School students starting with this year’s freshman class would have to show an acceptance letter to a four-year university, a community college, a trade school or apprenticeship, an internship, or a branch of the armed services in order to receive their high school diploma.

7am – C         Terry McAuliffe’s wife mulling political run… Democrats clamor to take on Rep. Comstock in northern Virginia. (Washington Post) — Several Democrats are considering challenging Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) next year, setting up a potential primary in a northern Virginia district that has been in Republican hands since the early 1980s. The enthusiasm among Democrats in Comstock’s district reflects a trend playing out around the country as liberal activists who want to combat President Trump’s agenda turn to public office. Comstock isn’t up for re-election until 2018, but candidates are already busy gaming out the race and lining up support in a district where experts say an off-year election requires a war chest of at least $3 million. Many Democrats say the most formidable candidate of the bunch would be state Sen. Jennifer Wexton, 48, an attorney from Loudoun County, who confirmed to The Washington Post that she is weighing a run, but declined further comment. Kimberly Adams, 41, the past president of the Fairfax teachers union, already announced her candidacy, has a web site and is raising money. Dorothy McAuliffe, 53, the wife of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, is considering joining the crowded field as well, according to two Democrats familiar with her thinking.

7am – D         BANNON/NSC:

• SLATE: White House: Bannon Has Never Been to an NSC Meeting, Will Continue Attending NSC Meetings
• HUFFINGTON POST: Jared Kushner Helped Push Steve Bannon Out Of The NSC. Reports of tension between the president’s two closest advisers are the latest intrigue to beset the Trump White House.
• LA TIMES: Trump removes Stephen Bannon from National Security Council in staff shake-up.

7am – E         Maryland Governor Blasts MCPS School Board Over Request To Reconsider School Year Mandate. (Bethesda magazine) — Gov. Larry Hogan last week sent Montgomery County education officials a sharply worded letter that urged them to focus on the “series of recent troubling incidents in schools” rather than second-guess his mandate on the school calendar. The March 29 message came in response to the school board’s request that Hogan reconsider an executive order directing schools to begin classes after Labor Day and finish them by June 15. Board members argued that the mandate created a calendar crunch, resulting in lost teacher planning and training time and difficulty identifying potential snow make-up days. However, Hogan wrote that his executive order was not to blame for the academic calendar that the school board approved in February. He faulted the nine full or partial professional days for teachers that the county school system builds into the calendar. “It is unacceptable for students to miss this much classroom time and force parents to alter their schedules or find childcare during the school year, when this professional development could easily take place during the summer break,” he wrote. The governor’s correspondence, addressed to Durso, concluded with a barb about student safety in a school system reeling from the March 16 reported rape at Rockville High School. “Considering the series of recent troubling incidents reported in Montgomery County schools, I suggest you and your colleagues consider shifting your focus from arguing over which 180 days class is in session to ensuring that students are safe in your schools,” he wrote.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – GORDON CHANG – author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World” and Forbes contributor

• PREVIEW: Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Meet / TOP OF THE AGENDA: North Korea and Trade
• Donald Trump warns China the US is ready to tackle North Korea.
• President Trump’s first face-to-face meeting today with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will take place at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s family-owned resort in Florida.
• The U.S.-China relationship has been under pressure over trade, North Korea and China’s expansion in the South China Sea.

8am – B         Entertainment News:

• Israel is postponing an election for Britney Spears. (Vanity Fair) — American voters could hardly escape the celebrity voices telling them to get out and vote during the 2016 U.S. election. But in the case of Israel’s Labor Party election, a celebrity is posing a barrier, of sorts, for party members to cast their votes.  Britney Spears is set to perform in Tel Aviv on July 3, the same day as the Israeli Labor Party’s election. Naturally, the Israeli Labor Party, currently led by Isaac Herzog, moved its election to July 4, per Israeli publication Haaretz (as pointed out by Vulture). Though the party has not yet released the location of the polls, Haaretz notes that party sources assume some votes will be counted at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, opposite where Spears’s concert will take place. Another concern, of course, is that of security; both security guards and stewards will be needed for Spears’s event and the election.
• Richard Simmons Just Signed a New Merchandising Deal. The reclusive fitness mogul Richard Simmons, back in cultural consciousness due to the popular podcast Missing Richard Simmons, has inked a new deal with a company to take on his licensing, merchandising and endorsements. With the deal, Prominent Brand + Talent now plans to expand on Simmons’s current lineup, which has sold more than $1.5 billion in merchandise, trade publication License Global reported. Simmons signed the deal with Prominent partly because of the popularity of Missing Richard Simmons, which explored his abrupt disappearance from public life and his friends’ lives without explanation in 2014, according to his longtime manager Michael Catalano. The show aired its final episode on March 20. Catalano told CNBC that the podcast and a recent People story about Simmons “created an outpouring of interest” in the star.
• Barry Manilow Reveals Why He Didn’t Come Out for Decades: I Thought I Would ‘Disappoint’ Fans If They Knew I Was Gay. Pop legend Barry Manilow opens up for the first time about coming out, finding love, and surviving showbiz for 50 years.  For decades Barry Manilow gave the world timeless hits, while keeping his own world a total secret. Now at 73 years old, the music legend is opening up about his life, struggles and, for the first time, his sexuality. Fiercely private, the pop icon recently welcomed PEOPLE into his Palm Springs home for an exclusive interview and photo shoot with his manager husband Garry Kief — and talked for the first time about their nearly 40-year romance. Says Manilow, “I’m so private. I always have been.”
• SONGS GETTING SHORTER AS ATTENTION SPANS DIMINISH: A new study finds that pop songs themselves are getting faster as listeners’ attention spans diminish.  Instrumental openings to songs have shrunk dramatically over the past three decades and, to a lesser extent, the average tempo of hit singles has been speeding up, the research found. Hubert Leveille Gauvin, a doctoral student in music theory at the Ohio State University, analyzed the year-end top 10 on the US Billboard chart between 1986 and 2015.  In 1986, it took roughly 23 seconds before the voice began on the average hit song. In 2015, vocals came in after about five seconds, a drop of 78 percent, he found.

8am – C         SPORTS NEWS:

• Nationals pledge more customer service staff after Opening Day snafu. WASHINGTON — After long lines, glitchy ATMs and poor service during the Nationals’ Opening Day game Monday prompted online outrage, a team official says more customer service staff will be posted throughout the park and ready to step in. “They are there to help resolve any issues you may encounter,” Alan H. Gottlieb, the Nationals’ chief operating officer, said in a letter to fans posted online ahead of Wednesday evening’s matchup against the Marlins. Gottlieb said the team has been “working around the clock” to resolve technical problems that frustrated many fans’ Opening Day experience Monday. Most of the issues have already been fixed, he said. “We apologize and thank you for your patience and continued support,” Gottlieb said in the letter. Fed-up fans took to social media to vent their frustration over “ridiculous” lines and bottlenecks at concessions, malfunctioning ATMs and “terrible” customer service.
• Capitals clinch Presidents’ Trophy with NHL’s for second straight year. As the Washington Capitals once again climbed the league standings, talk of winning the Presidents’ Trophy for a second straight year never came up. The goal was to win the Metropolitan Division, not the piece of hardware honoring the NHL’s best record, and after the team clinched both with its 2-0 win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, the trophy remained an afterthought. “We didn’t mention it,” Coach Barry Trotz said. “All I said was, ‘Good work by us.’ Then we talked about winning. We said we wanted to win the Metro, and we did.” The Capitals are now assured of the top seed in the Eastern Conference and will have home ice throughout the playoffs.

8am – D         Trump, Citing No Evidence, Suggests Susan Rice Committed Crime. (NY Times) — WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser, may have committed a crime by seeking to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials by United States spy agencies, repeating an assertion his allies in the news media have been making since last week. Mr. Trump gave no evidence to support his claim, and current and former intelligence officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations have said they do not believe Ms. Rice’s actions were unusual or unlawful. The president repeatedly rebuffed attempts by two New York Times reporters to learn more about what led him to the conclusion, saying he would talk more about it “at the right time.” The allegation by a sitting president was a remarkable escalation — and, his critics say, the latest effort to change the story at a time when his nascent administration has been consumed by questions about any role his associates may have played in a Russian campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.

8am – E         US Senate set to vote Thursday on limiting Supreme Court nominee debate.  WASHINGTON – The US Senate is expected to vote at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday on whether to limit debate and move toward the final confirmation of President Donald Trump’s choice of federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to take a seat on the US Supreme Court.