Garrett Graff, former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Steve Moore and Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer joined WMAL on Thursday.

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

5am – A/B/C    Is getting a special investigator for Russia a good or a bad idea?

• Former FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee Russia investigation.

5am – D         What’s your past salary? Lawmakers want to ban the question (AP)

An awkward job interview question “how much did you make at your last job?” is getting banned in some parts of the country. Massachusetts, New York City and Philadelphia have passed laws that bar employers from asking applicants about their salary history. And several states, including California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, have proposed similar legislation this year. Supporters say the bans are one way to help close the wage gap between men and women. Some business advocates, however, say the bans hurt companies that use salary histories to help them set wages. This year, at least 21 states and Washington D.C. have proposed legislation that would prohibit salary history questions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The states are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and Washington. Others may join in. “There’s probably going to be a trend toward this,” says Faul.

5am – E         Warning pregnant women over dangers of alcohol goes too far, experts say. Experts claim some mothers-to-be may even be having have an abortion due to worry about damaging their unborn child by drinking alcohol. Women are being unfairly alarmed by official guidelines that warn them to avoid alcohol completely during pregnancy, experts claim. Some mothers-to-be may even be having an abortion because they are worried they have damaged their unborn child by drinking too much, it is claimed. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, maternal rights campaign group Birthrights and academics specialising in parenting say official advice on drinking in pregnancy is too prescriptive. Revised guidelines that came into force in January 2016 are not based on reliable evidence, they say. The advice, endorsed by the four UK nations’ chief medical officers, deleted a longstanding reference to pregnant women potentially having one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week while expecting and instead said that they should not drink at all. “We need to think hard about how risk is communicated to women on issues relating to pregnancy. There can be real consequences to overstating evidence or implying certainty when there isn’t any,” said Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at BPAS, the contraception and abortion charity.  “Doing so can cause women needless anxiety and alarm, sometimes to the point that they consider ending an unplanned but not unwanted pregnancy because of fears they have caused irreparable harm.” Ellie Lee, director of Kent University’s centre for parenting culture studies, said the advice means pregnant women also shun social occasions unnecessarily. “As proving ‘complete safety’ [of drinking in pregnancy] is entirely impossible, where does this leave pregnant women? The scrutiny and oversight of their behaviour the official approach invites is not benign. It creates anxiety and impairs ordinary social interaction. And the exclusion of women from an ordinary activity on the basis of ‘precaution’ can more properly be called sexist than benign,” Lee added.

6am – A    Joseph Lieberman and 3 Others Interview to Be F.B.I. Director

President Trump, hoping to nominate a new F.B.I. director before leaving on a long foreign trip on Friday, interviewed four potential candidates on Wednesday, including Joseph I. Lieberman, the former senator from Connecticut. The task of coming up with a credible replacement for James B. Comey, whom the president fired as director last week, has taken on new urgency over the last few days. Mr. Trump accelerated his search after The New York Times reported on Tuesday that he had pressured Mr. Comey to drop his investigation of Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, amid a broader F.B.I. inquiry into possible collusion between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russian officials. Several administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations, described a rushed and fluid process in which the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had swung nearly hour by hour on which candidate they preferred. Mr. Lieberman’s name surfaced publicly for the first time on Wednesday after Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, added him to the list of candidates Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions were scheduled to interview before the president departs for a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe. Mr. Spicer said the other three candidates were the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe; former Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma, a Republican; and Richard A. McFeely, a former top official at the F.B.I.

6am – B         Critter News:

• Florida man tries to kiss rattlesnake; gets bitten.A Florida man who tried to kiss a rattlesnake, only for it to snub his advances and bite him, is recovering in hospital. The snake was found by Charles Goff, a resident of Putnam County, in the north-east of the state, on Monday.  A day later, a neighbour, named by a local CBS channel as Ron Reinold, started playing with the snake and made his ill-judged move. Mr Reinold was airlifted to hospital and is now recovering.”One boy said, ‘I’m going to kiss it in the mouth,’ and the snake bit him in the face,” Mr Goff told Action News Jax. “Ron was just acting silly, you know? I guess he said he could kiss the devil and get away with it, but evidently he didn’t.” First Coast News said the victim was conscious but had initially been in a critical condition. The snake is believed to have escaped after its ordeal. It is still not clear why Mr Reinold tried to kiss the rattlesnake.

• Dog meat to be BANNED at China’s annual Yulin festival after activists campaigned to end the trade that sees millions of animals stolen and slaughtered each year. Dog meat will be banned at an annual Chinese festival after activists campaigned to stop millions of animals being stolen and bludgeoned to death each year. The government is set to prohibit restaurants, street vendors and market traders from selling dog meat at the barbaric Yulin festival. It is believed the ban will come into effect on June 15 – one week before the festival begins – and strictly enforced by fines of up to 100,000 yuan and risk of arrest. Millions of helpless cats will still be transported to the festival to be brutally slaughtered in front of each other and sold for their meat, alongside other types of meat

• Capital Follow-up: Famed Annapolis ‘snake house’ close to sale. During the past two years, Champion Realty President and CEO Jon Coile has learned more than he ever wanted to about snakes. He now knows about snake behaviors, and about possible reasons why snakes came to be found inside a home on, say, Truxton Road on the Broadneck Peninsula. The home was the subject of a $2 million lawsuit filed by former owners Jeffrey and Jody Brooks in May 2015, after they said Barbara Van Horn, an agent for Annapolis-based Champion Realty, had failed to disclose information about “an infestation of snakes” in the home. The couple told The Capital that they had found eight snakes, some as long as seven feet, in the house before leaving. The story spread like, well, baby snakes. The case was settled in November, for undisclosed terms. Property records show that Champion Realty purchased the home from the Brookses in November for $410,000, the same price the couple paid when they purchased the property in December 2014. Coile said Wednesday that the company spent $180,000 in legal fees on the case. The issue wasn’t that the house had a snake problem, assistant manager for Champion Realty Bob McWilliams said. It had a mouse problem — that’s what brought in the snakes. By any account, “snake house” is one of those descriptions that’s a tough sell. After a $90,000 renovation, McWilliams and Coile said Wednesday the building wasn’t a “snake house” but rather a “great house.” Champion went to great lengths to improve the home on Truxton Road, the men said. Crews searching for snakes had gutted the home’s partially finished basement, removing drywall and insulation. On the upper level, ceiling drywall and attic insulation were removed. Walls were removed in the kitchen area to give the house a more open feel and new carpeting, a new kitchen, new hardwood floors, new siding and a new laundry room were added. The idea, Coile said, was to make the house so attractive that it sold immediately.

• Cicadas emerge four years earlier than anticipated in D.C. area (ABC7) –It’s an unusual sound of spring and summer, coming to a neighborhood near you. Unusual because periodical cicadas generally appear every 13 or 17 years– but not this year. “We used to play with them, and do gross stuff,” smiles Samantha Sachs. “I grew up actually with them. When they came out I was like seven or eight.” Sachs, a 24-year-old nurse living in Arlington, remembers when the cicadas last appeared in 2004. She became quite the collector. “Like all the little shells, we used to gather them up and stuff,” Sachs recalls. “I hope they don’t come back like that.” The noisy little critters weren’t supposed to emerge from underground until 2021, part of the typical 17-year cycle. Something happened to accelerate that cycle to this year. There are theories: global warming, natural competition, even the cicadas trying to avoid predators, but no one knows for sure. “This is absolutely known only to mother nature and cicadas,” says University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp. “Scientists are still trying to figure out what the mechanism is that underlies these four year accelerations.” Raupp says cicadas in the metro area began appearing earlier in the month, crawling out of underground burrows, where they feed for years on roots and trees.

6am – C   Rockville High Security Footage Increases Concerns About Staffing to Monitor Cameras. Security footage from a Maryland high school increased concerns about staffing and who is watching the cameras. Surveillance video from inside Rockville High School appears to show the moments before a 14-year-old girl entered a boy’s bathroom with a teenager. That teenager and another were charged with rape, but charges later were dropped. The video shows an almost empty hallway where the girl walks hand-in-hand with a taller boy to a boy’s bathroom and enters. They disappear for several minutes. No security staff is seen. No one tries to intervene or check on the girl. The two teen boys believed to be seen in the video were charged with rape, but the criminal case later collapsed and the teens were released. While the surveillance video does not show what happened inside the bathroom parents in Montgomery County say it’s troubling the girl could so easily disappear into a boy’s room. “It’s a huge problem,” parent Jennifer Alvaro said. “It’s a huge problem.” Security staffers should be visible, Alvaro said. “It’s all about playing defense, defense, defense, and “she said. “It’s never being proactive. They’re not monitored.” A review by the News4 I-Team revealed weaknesses in the school’s security camera system. Inside the school district’s security hub in Rockville, security staff can watch 5,000 cameras inside the school system’s 200-plu s buildings. With so many cameras, but so few people on staff, they can’t be watched in real time at headquarters or in the school buildings. “The cameras aren’t the end all and be all, and we know that we have to do more than just that,” County Council member Craig Rice said. “That will help in some areas where we know that there are blind spots, but we know that cameras aren’t in everywhere.” The county is considering a $2 million increase in funding for school security potentially to add more staff, more lighting and possibly remove some bathroom doors, Rice said. “We still have to have and make sure staff are adequately checking those areas to ensure that students aren’t just hanging out there doing other things,” he said. The allegations at Rockville High triggered a sweeping security review of every single Montgomery County public school, but it’s taking much longer than many expected. Only 10 percent of schools, high schools only, are complete.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – GARRETT GRAFF – author of the “The Threat Matrix: FBI at War”

• Topic: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee Russia investigation.
• Robert Mueller appointed special counsel to oversee probe into Russia’s interference in 2016 election. The United States Department of Justice has announced that a special counsel has been appointed to investigate Russian interference into last year’s presidential election and links or coordination with the campaign of President Donald Trump.Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was assigned by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to “oversee the previously-confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, and related matters.” In a statement, Rosenstein said, “My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination. What I have determined is that based upon the unique circumstances, the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command.” “I accept this responsibility and will discharge it to the best of my ability,” said Mueller in a statement.

6am – E         Green calls for impeachment: Texas Rep. Al Green called for President Trump’s impeachment in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday, becoming the first lawmaker to do so in that venue.  “Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart. I rise today with a sense of responsibility and duty to the people who have elected me, sense of duty to this country, a sense of duty to the Constitution of the United States of America,” said Green, a Democrat. “I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America…for obstruction of justice.”

6am – F   Sheriff David Clarke says he’s accepted a DHS job, but was it offered? Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke says he has accepted a top position at the Department of Homeland Security, he announced during a radio interview Wednesday. Clarke, a conservative Democrat, will reportedly take the position of assistant secretary at the agency, which is led by retired Gen. John Kelly. The Trump administration, however, won’t confirm Clarke’s appointment. Asked about Clarke’s announcement, an administration official told the CNN “The position in question is a secretarial position and is therefore a question for DHS.”  DHS spokeswoman Wednesday declined to confirm Clarke’s new job. The agency’s website lists an Office of Partnership and Engagement that coordinates “outreach efforts with critical stakeholders nationwide.”

7am – A    – INTERVIEW – ROBERT MCDOWELL – served as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission from June 1, 2006 to May 17, 2013

• Topic: FCC taking first vote on net neutrality rollback
• MCDOWELL’S TAKE on net neutrality rollback vote: “It’s a good thing and not actually a rollback.” The Federal Communications Commission will take its first vote in the coming week on Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to undo the net neutrality rules put in place in 2015. At the FCC’s open meeting on Thursday, the commission will vote to move forward with the plan to repeal the regulations that reclassified broadband service providers as telecommunications services, and opened them up to tougher regulation from the FCC. By reclassifying the industry, the FCC also gained the legal footing to impose rules on internet service providers prohibiting them from blocking, throttling or prioritizing web content. If the commission moves ahead with the plan on Thursday, the proposal will be opened up to public input.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW — JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

• TOPIC: COMEY MEMOS
• Chaffetz invites Comey to testify next Wednesday. House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz is inviting former FBI director James Comey to testify next Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Chaffetz (R-Utah) told POLITICO he has officially scheduled the hearing and is in the process of trying to connect with Comey. The hearing will be the day the FBI is due to send documents to the oversight panel.
• The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday asked the FBI to turn over memos prepared by former Director James Comey detailing conversations he had with the White House and Justice Department about the FBI’s Russia investigations. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) also sent a letter Wednesday to Comey asking that he testify before their panel in open and closed sessions. The senators had previously asked Comey to testify in closed session this Tuesday, but he declined.

7am – D  INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Heritage Foundation economist

• Topic: Turmoil over recent Trump controversies triggers the Dow’s biggest losses since September. If Trump sees more turmoil and uncertain stock market, could this impact tax reform and health care efforts?
• Dow Closes Down 372 Points as Markets Lose Confidence in Trump.The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 372.82 points on Wednesday, bringing the giddy post-election rally of the past few months to a halt as investors began to worry about the daily revelations of disarray with President Donald Trump’s administration.  It’s the first time since Trump’s election that the market has snubbed the commander in chief, and a clear indication of waning confidence in the president’s ability to fulfill his key promises of tax reform, deregulation, and investment in infrastructure.  The Dow closed at 20,606, with financials such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley absorbing the most losses.  “This is clearly Washington-driven,” Michael Shaoul, chairman and CEO of Marketfield Asset Management, told CNBC. “It’s a lot like 1998-99, when the market had to deal with the [Monica] Lewinsky scandal.”

7am – E   People are replacing costly ambulance rides with Uber. But some Uber drivers are concerned.  (WUSA9) – A chat room for Uber drivers is filled with stories about what happens when people use them to try and get to the ER. Posts describe people who hailed the ride sharing service to be rushed to the ER for everything from a child having respiratory problems to a guy with bone sticking out of his leg. One driver even called himself an “Uber-lance.” That’s exactly what Carmen Torres felt like when she got violently ill on New Year’s Eve. “Was pretty much screaming in pain. I already had tears,” Torres said. “I go upstairs, try to lay down, it didn’t work out. I threw up. I was like OK, I can’t do this anymore.” But instead of calling an ambulance, she ordered an Uber. Why? Torres said the last time she did that, insurance didn’t cover the ride and she got a $600 bill. Is calling an Uber to go to the ER a good idea? Even some emergency officials say there are times when using a ride hailing service to get to the ER is OK. But only if you are headed there for something that’s not an emergency which unfortunately happens all the time these days. “It really depends on what your situation is,” said Lt. Jamie Baltrotsky. But Baltrotsky said if you’re in bad shape, calling an Uber is a terrible idea. Not only do they not know how to help you if your condition gets worse, they also have no clue if the requested ER location is equipped to handle you. “Some hospitals don’t take pediatric patients. Some hospitals aren’t cardiac care centers, and so an Uber driver isn’t going to know that.” Baltrotsky said. Uber driver Albert Anciako said he’s been hailed by a rider to transport them to the ER. A couple months ago he drove a mom and her sick kids to Holy Cross Hospital. Anciako made that run, but he said that’s not what he signed up for. “No, I would cancel, I would cancel it,” Anciako said, when asked if he would take another customer to the ER. Uber and Lyft agree. Both ride hailing services issued statements to WUSA9 discouraging the use of their services for transportation to the ER. “We’re grateful our service has helped people get to where they’re going when they need it the most,” wrote a spokesman for Uber. “However, it’s important to note that Uber is not a substitute for law enforcement or medical professionals. In the event of any medical emergency, we encourage people to call 911.” “In any medical emergency, people should be calling 911. Lyft should not be used as a substitute for emergency transportation,” a Lyft spokesman added.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — LT. COL TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and the New York Times bestselling author of ” Operation Dark Heart.”

• TOPIC: Chaffetz invites Comey to testify next Wednesday. House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz is inviting former FBI director James Comey to testify next Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Chaffetz (R-Utah) told POLITICO he has officially scheduled the hearing and is in the process of trying to connect with Comey. The hearing will be the day the FBI is due to send documents to the oversight panel.
•  Congress Demands Comey’s Trump Memos, Testimony. The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday asked the FBI to turn over memos prepared by former Director James Comey detailing conversations he had with the White House and Justice Department about the FBI’s Russia investigations. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) also sent a letter Wednesday to Comey asking that he testify before their panel in open and closed sessions. The senators had previously asked Comey to testify in closed session this Tuesday, but he declined.

 8am – B         Food News:

• Bojangles’ is planning a D.C.-area expansion – The Charlotte, North Carolina-based fast-food chain has a multiunit development agreement with new franchisee Baryalay Razi, owner of Mitchellville-based MSR Restaurants LLC, to open Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits locations in Northern Virginia. The company also has two other franchisee groups on board actively looking for sites in the area that would open over the next five years, according to Randy Icard, Bojangles’ vice president of franchise development. It’s too early to know how many sites may open or when, he said, but they’re targeting everywhere from Springfield to Manassas to Fredericksburg to Winchester. Bojangles’ already has locations locally at Union Station in the District, and New Carrollton, Landover, Upper Marlboro, Oxon Hill and Hillcrest Heights in Maryland. MSR Restaurants also bought and now operates the Maryland sites, according to the company. The chain — which is known for its homemade buttermilk biscuits, breaded chicken and iced tea stewed the old-fashioned way — has more than 715 restaurants across the country. Of those, more than 60 are located in Virginia, but the company has not yet expanded within the region.
• Wawa is coming to D.C., though where remains a mystery (WBJ) – Wawa Inc., the immensely popular eastern Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain, has eyes for the District. Exactly where, it appears, is still to be determined, but a Wawa spokeswoman indicated that the first D.C. store will feature a unique design created specifically for the nation’s capital. It is unclear whether it will offer gas, or if there will be more than one. Wawa will host an event at the Newseum on June 13 “for the real estate and development community and local officials where we will unveil our plans for the first Wawa store in Washington, D.C., including a special design, store location, renderings, with remarks from Wawa leadership and more,” company spokeswoman Lori Bruce said in an email. Prince of Petworth first reported the news, via a tipster who supplied the website with a flyer announcing the Newseum event. Wawa has proliferated in the suburbs, opening its first Fairfax County store in Chantilly, building its first Loudoun store in Sterling (opening this summer) and adding to its slate of stores in Prince William County. It also operates stores in Capitol Heights, Beltsville and along the Route 301 in Maryland. But its fans — many of whom originally hail from the Philadelphia suburbs, this reporter included — have long waited for the world’s most prolific hoagie producer to move closer to the D.C., if not enter the District proper.
• FIVE GUYS BEATS IN-AND-OUT in new HARRIS POLL for number 1 burger.
• Starbucks testing coffee ice cubes in 100 stores (ABC News) – It’s an iced-coffee lover’s summer dream come true. Starbucks on Monday began testing coffee ice cubes in iced coffee drinks in two markets, St. Louis and Baltimore, according to spokesperson Holly Shafer. She called it a “very small test” that includes just 100 stores of the nearly 25,000 Starbucks around the globe. “It’s one of several tests going on,” Shafer told ABC News. “Our scale allows us to test things quickly to see what’s next.” She said the company then gathers feedback from customers and employees. In the participating stores, customers can add ice that’s been made using Starbucks coffee to any iced espresso or brewed coffee beverage for 80 cents.

8am – C         Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, a founding father of grunge rock, dead at 52 – Chris Cornell, a dynamic vocalist and guitarist whose versatile showmanship as Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog’s frontman was a signpost of the grunge era, died Wednesday night. The cause of death is under investigation, according to his rep. He was 52. The singer was in Detroit at the time of his death, having played a show with Soundgarden, who were on tour, earlier in the evening. “His wife, Vicky, and family were shocked to learn of his sudden and unexpected passing, and they will be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause,” his publicist said in a statement. They also asked for fans to respect their privacy.

 8am – D     Is getting a special investigator for Russia a good or a bad idea? Former FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee Russia investigation.

 8am –  E    RIP ROGER AILES.