Fox’s James Rosen, Brad Bauman (Seth Rich family spokesperson), Amb. John Bolton, Joe Concha and Daily Caller’s White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, May 19, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   Friday, May 19: Bike-to-Work Day 2017 in United States of America

• Sneaker Subsidy? New Proposal Would Give Cash To Commuters Who Don’t Drive. (WAMU) — Prefer to walk to work rather than drive? A new proposal would offer cash to commuters who make that choice. John Smith’s commute from Rockville, Maryland, to downtown D.C. is only 20 miles, but during the morning rush hour, it takes him an hour and 20 minutes. Smith, a finance professional, would rather take Metrorail’s Red Line, but he puts up with the traffic because his employer pays for his parking space. “It’s just a bunch of traffic. If I leave really early, it’s not too bad, but to get here on time it’s stressful,” said Smith on a recent morning near his office. Even with Metro’s problems, he would prefer to use mass transit instead of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to and from work.“It’s less stressful, especially when the Metro is working well,” he said. Smith may soon be able to cash in on his preferred mode of transport by cashing out his parking benefit. Legislation proposed by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) would require any business that pays for a worker’s parking space to offer that same benefit — in cash — if the employee chooses to walk, bike or take transit to the office instead of driving. “Rather than only incentivizing driving and parking, why not incentive healthier, sustainable commutes?” This is not the pre-tax transit or parking benefit many employers already offer; Allen’s proposal deals with taxable cash paid out in addition to an employee’s salary or wages. “It’s only fair that if you choose transit, you choose bike, you choose walk, some other way to get to work, that value should carry with you. It’s about fairness for our employees,” said Allen in an interview with WAMU.

5am – D         Rise of young women going ‘au naturel’ as nearly a quarter now don’t shave their underarms. (Telegraph) — Almost one in four young  women have stopped shaving their underarms, figures show.  Research by analysts Mintel shows that there has been a steady decline in millennial women removing hair from their legs and underarms. In 2013 95 per cent of women aged 16 to 24 said they removed hair from their underarms. In 2016, this had dropped to just 77 per cent.  Leg-shaving is also falling out of fashion – in 2013 92 per cent said they shaved their legs, a proportion which had fallen to 85 per cent in 2016.  Industry figures show that sales of shaving and hair removal products fell by 5 per cent between 2015 and 2016, from £598m to an estimated £567m. Roshida Khanom, associate director in beauty and personal care at Mintel, said that women were influenced by the wellness movement.  Products such as shaving foam and hair removal cream are perceived to be bad for the skin, leading women to shun them in favour of natural beauty products.  “Clean eating is behind some of those changes. They’re worried about causing irritation from their skin because of these products.

5am – E         House May Need to Vote Again on GOP Obamacare Repeal Bill. (Bloomberg) – House Republicans barely managed to pass their Obamacare repeal bill earlier this month, and they now face the possibility of having to vote again on their controversial health measure. House Speaker Paul Ryan hasn’t yet sent the bill to the Senate because there’s a chance that parts of it may need to be redone, depending on how the Congressional Budget Office estimates its effects. House leaders want to make sure the bill conforms with Senate rules for reconciliation, a mechanism that allows Senate Republicans to pass the bill with a simple majority. Republicans had rushed to vote on the health bill so the Senate could get a quick start on it, even before the CBO had finished analyzing a series of last-minute changes. The CBO is expected to release an updated estimate next week.

6am – A/B/C Metro passenger meets Good Samaritan who stepped in to stop vicious attack. (Fox5DC) — WASHINGTON – A man who was attacked by a group of teenagers while riding on Metro has been reunited with the selfless young man who stepped in and helped break up the brutal attack. Last Friday evening, John Rowley walked off a train at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station. He was on his way to meet a friend for dinner when a group of teenagers surrounded him and attacked. They knocked Rowley to the ground, kicked him and attempted to throw him toward a moving train. Andrew Miller saw the attack happening and rushed in to help. “The word hero is thrown around casually – sports heroes, all sorts of heroes,” said Rowley. “This guy is a hero.” “They stepped over him, came at me,” Miller described. “They threw one punch, which I was able to block kind of instinctively, but it landed a little bit. They swung again the second time. That one hit me. That one hit me down and I think that was the end of it.” “Nobody except one person stopped – that is this guy right here,” said Rowley. “Frankly, while I got some fairly significant injuries that would have been a whole lot worse because he took some of the punches that were intended for me.” The 23-year-old Miller suffered a slight concussion. Rowley has swelling and bruising where he was kicked in the face. His hand hit the moving train and he will have to undergo surgery so doctors can insert pins to help heal his broken bones.

6am – D         Cher admits she doesn’t like her own music.  If Cher could turn back time, she may not have recorded half the music she did. The singer, 70, revealed in a new profile that despite the success of many of her tracks, she is certainly not itching to listen to her own tunes any time soon. “I’m not a Cher fan,” she told Billboard. “I just don’t think my aesthetic taste lies in that direction.” By the time she released 1989’s “If I Could Turn Back Time,” however, she had largely accepted her legacy, and was able to adopt lukewarm feelings toward at least one of her own tracks.  “(“If I Could Turn Back Time”) was OK,” she admitted. “By that time, I figured out I wasn’t going to ever be the Eagles.” Still, she couldn’t accept the 1995 album “It’s a Man’s World” as easily, calling it “crap.” “I don’t remember what’s on it — I didn’t like any of it,” she lamented.

6am – E         ‘I wanted to kill them, you were supposed to kill me’: Drug-crazed attacker with history of drink driving who plowed into pedestrians on the sidewalk in Times Square – killing one and injuring 22 – tells cops he planned a murder-suicide spree. (Daily Mail) – This is the harrowing moment a driver believed to be high on synthetic marijuana plowed into pedestrians in New York City’s Times Square before telling police as he was arrested: ‘I wanted to kill them all.’ The driver, identified as 26-year-old Richard Rojas of the Bronx, was dramatically taken into custody on Thursday after killing an 18-year-old girl and seriously injuring 22 others when he drove through crowds at the popular tourist destination.  A crazed Rojas tried to flee police immediately after crashing his maroon Honda sedan in to a pole and was captured on camera running across the road with his arms flailing.  Dramatic video footage, which show the immense speed in which he was travelling, shows Rojas getting into a fistfight with an officer as they struggled to arrest him, before he was eventually bundled into a squad car. Rojas allegedly told police after he was arrested that he wanted to murder the innocent pedestrians and then wanted cops to kill him as well, sources told the New York Post. ‘You were supposed to shoot me. I wanted to kill them,’ he told police.   Law enforcement sources say that Rojas appeared to have smoked the synthetic drug, also known as K2, before to the crash.  Others claimed he was also under the influence of PCP which causes hallucinations and mania. He told police once in custody that God made him carry out the attack, according to sources cited by CNN.  Rojas, a former Navy electrician mate fireman’s apprentice who left service in 2014 and never served overseas, blew a 0.0 when tested for alcohol at the precinct following his arrest.

6am – F         Italy giving away 100 castles for free… Italy is giving away more than 100 historic castles, farmhouses and monasteries for free in an effort to breathe new life into its disused public buildings. Under a new scheme unveiled by the country’s government run State Property Agency, 103 ancient buildings will be up for grabs to entrepreneurs who promise to transform the locations into tourist destinations. The disused properties are situated along eight historic routes running the breadth of the country and the nearby islands of Sicily and Sardinia. It is hoped that the initiative will create a series of new facilities for the hundreds of hikers, cyclists and pilgrims who use the routes each year.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW — JAMES ROSEN — Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent and author and editor of upcoming book “A Torch Kept Lit by William F. Buckley, Jr.” (Crown, October 2016)

• James will be hosting SPECIAL REPORT tonight.
• Remembering Roger Ailes
• Thoughts on the turmoil at the White House — leaks, Comey memo, etc

7am – D         INTERVIEW – BRAD BAUMAN – Spokesperson for the Seth Rich family

• Family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich blasts detective over report of WikiLeaks link 
• Family of slain DNC staffer demands retractions from Fox News, local TV station. (CNN Money) — The family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was fatally shot last July, is demanding retractions from Fox News and WTTG-TV on Wednesday for their inaccurate reports on the unsolved murder, a spokesman for the family told CNN Wednesday. “The family is officially asking for a retraction and an apology from Fox News and from the Fox 5 DC affiliate for inaccurate reporting and damaging the legacy of their son,” spokesman Brad Bauman said. This week, both Fox News and WTTG-TV published and aired reports, sourced to private investigator Rod Wheeler, that said evidence showed Rich had been in contact with Wikileaks before his death. Wheeler later told CNN he had no such evidence and that he had, in fact, only heard of some information attributed to him from a Fox News reporter with whom he spoke.   A FoxNews.com story on the case also cited a “federal source” who said the FBI had conducted a forensic analysis of Rich’s computer and discovered thousands of emails with Wikileaks. But a law enforcement official told CNN that the FBI never had possession of Rich’s laptop and did not conduct a forensic analysis of its contents.

7am – E         University of Michigan Students ‘Intimidated’ by ‘Masculine’ Wood Paneling in Academic Buildings. (Breitbart) – Students at the prestigious University of Michigan are claiming to be “intimidated” by the “masculine” wood paneling on the walls of academic buildings on campus. Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, stated at a student government meeting that “minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” of several academic buildings around campus. The primary building in question, the Michigan Union building, is a historical building on campus and serves as one of the most recognizable landmarks of the university. Although the building is set to undergo a pricey $85.2 million renovation, the wood paneling is here to stay, to the dismay of minority students who finds it presence to be “intimidating.” “There is a significant presence of wood paneling on the interior of the building and we expect most, if not all of it, will remain after the renovation,” said University of Michigan spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – AMB. JOHN BOLTON – former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Senior Fellow for the American Enterprise Institute

• PREVIEW TRUMP’S FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP AS PRESIDENT: Trump will spend more than week abroad, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Belgium, and Sicily. It’s not a coincidence that the itinerary includes the religious centers for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. White House officials portrayed the tour as an opportunity to unite the three religions in the fight against “intolerance” and radical extremism (i.e. destroying ISIS and isolating Iran).

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — JOE CONCHA — Media reporter, The Hill

• Reflect on Roger Ailes’ impact and legacy on media today
• Joe discussed how there are few narratives in the media going viral but are not really true…
• First narrative: Spicer hiding in the bushes was not accurate reporting
• Second narrative: Comey hiding in the drapes to avoid Trump

8am – D         INTERVIEW – KAITLAN COLLINS – White House Correspondent, Daily Caller

• Trump Denies Asking James Comey To Shut Down The Investigation Into Mike Flynn
• Trump’s Advisers Are Urging Him To Hire An Outside Lawyer As Investigation Into Russia Moves Forward. Advisers are urging Donald Trump to hire an outside lawyer as the investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election — and whether there was collusion with his campaign staff — moves forward.
• Pence Doubles Down On Claim He Didn’t Know About Mike Flynn’s Turkish Lobbying Work. Mike Pence has doubled down on his claim that he didn’t know about Mike Flynn’s lobbying work for the Turkish government until March.
• Report Claims Donald Trump Has Kept In Touch With Michael Flynn, Encouraging Him To Stay Strong. Donald Trump has kept in touch with Mike Flynn, his former national security adviser who was forced out of the job after 24 days because he misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with Russian officials, a new report claims.
• Trump Says He Is The Victim Of The ‘Single Greatest Witch Hunt’ In American History. Donald Trump said the investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election — and whether his campaign staff colluded with them — is the greatest political witch hunt in American history.

8am – E         Chaffetz Out / Gowdy In?

• CHAFFETZ OUT NEXT MONTH: Chaffetz announces resignation at the end of June.  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) announced Thursday that he will resign his House seat at the end of June.  “This week I sent a letter to Governor Herbert indicating my intention to resign from Congress effective June 30, 2017,” Chaffetz wrote in a letter to his constituents. Chaffetz said he viewed his service in Congress as a temporary position, not a lifetime career.
• GOWDY IN? Gowdy poised to replace Chaffetz as Oversight chief. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is expected to become the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, replacing Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) in the high-profile post when he leaves Congress late next month, according to multiple senior House Republicans. Gowdy, who chaired the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has started buttonholing members of the House Steering Committee in recent days to build support. Five members of that panel, which decides committee assignments, told POLITICO that Gowdy would easily win a race for the job should another member challenge him.