Morgan Wright, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sarah Westwood and Cal Thomas joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   Steve Bannon: It will be “the end of everything” if Trump supports gun control.

5am – D/E     Social Security number has ‘outlived its usefulness’, WH cybersecurity coordinator says. (Fox Business) –The Equifax breach of 145.5 million Americans’ personally identifiable information has brought cybersecurity to the national forefront and as experts grapple with protecting consumer privacy, the Social Security number could be on the chopping block. “I feel very strongly that the Social Security number’s outlived its usefulness,” Rob Joyce, White House cybersecurity coordinator, said during a Washington Post conference on Monday. “It’s a flawed system. If you think about it, every time we use the Social Security number [we] put it at risk.” A Social Security number is a personal identifier that connects an individual to all sorts of information online. These numbers were just one of the many pieces of personal data compromised when unauthorized third parties accessed information at Equifax (EFX) earlier this year. However, as Joyce pointed out, a person cannot roll back the risk to her Social Security number once it has been breached. In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday, former Equifax CEO Richard Smith was asked about the magnitude of the breach on his company and whether the resulting risks could potentially continue on “forever” since Americans cannot change their Social Security numbers.

6am – A         VEGAS AFTERMATH:

• Trump calls Las Vegas shooting suspect ‘sick’ and ‘demented’
• Trump: ‘What happened in Las Vegas is in many ways a miracle’
• Las Vegas Shooter Wired $100,000 to Philippines Last Week
• Laura Ingraham on Las Vegas shooting aftermath: “There is not a government solution for every problem.”
• Ryan puts gun silencer bill on indefinite hold after Las Vegas shooting. In the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday said there are no plans to bring controversial gun silencer legislation to the House floor.  “I don’t know when it’s going to be scheduled. We’re focused on passing our budget,” the speaker said.
• Vegas shooter’s girlfriend Marilou Danley arrives in LA
• Las Vegas mayor on gunman: “How dare this rotten soul” do this to innocent people “like picking off ducks in a line”
• Vegas sheriff on hotel room: Cameras were “located outside of the room and inside of the room, along with the firearms.”
• Gun shop owner where shooter purchased a shotgun: He passed all of our background checks here in the store
• Las Vegas sheriff confirms the suspected shooter’s girlfriend remains a person of interest in the case.
• Las Vegas gunman wired $100,000 to girlfriend’s home country just days before shooting: report

6am – B/C     PUERTO RICO NEWS:

• Trump on Puerto Rico debt: ‘We’re going to have to wipe that out’
• Puerto Rico death toll from Hurricane Maria rises to 34, governor says
• There’s video of Trump shooting paper towels into the crowd and it does not disappoint
• Trump: “I’d hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack… That’s fine. We’ve saved a lot of lives.”

6am – D/E/F  JIMMY KIMMEL LOSES BEING FUNNY AND GETS PREACHY ABOUT GUNS:

• Jimmy Kimmel: Republicans Should “Pray to God to Forgive Them” Because They Caused the Las Vegas Shooting
• Jimmy Kimmel increases security at show due to Trump supporters

7am – A         INTERVIEW — MORGAN WRIGHT- Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government, former executive at Cisco & Alcatel-Lucent and former senior advisor for the US Department of State Antiterrorism Assistance Program

• Discuss the former Equifax CEO on the hill yesterday, Equifax scores big IRS fraud contract … also Yahoo admits everyone was hacked and NFL hack too
• EQUIFAX: The anger directed at Equifax was bipartisan during a hearing on the credit reporting giant’s security breakdown. IRS awards multimillion-dollar fraud-prevention contract to Equifax.
• Social Security number has ‘outlived its usefulness’, WH cybersecurity coordinator says. The Equifax breach of 145.5 million Americans’ personally identifiable information has brought cybersecurity to the national forefront and as experts grapple with protecting consumer privacy, the Social Security number could be on the chopping block. “I feel very strongly that the Social Security number’s outlived its usefulness,” Rob Joyce, White House cybersecurity coordinator, said during a Washington Post conference on Monday. “It’s a flawed system. If you think about it, every time we use the Social Security number [we] put it at risk.”
• YAHOO: Yahoo data breach affected every single customer account, or three times initial reports, parent company says (CNN) – Sitting down? An epic and historic data breach at Yahoo in August 2013 affected every single customer account that existed at the time, Yahoo parent company Verizon said on Tuesday. That’s three billion accounts — including email, Tumblr, Fantasy and Flickr — or three times as many as the company initially reported in 2016. Names, email addresses and passwords, but not financial information, were breached, Yahoo said last year. The new disclosure comes four months after Verizon (VZ, Tech30) acquired Yahoo’s core internet assets for $4.48 billion. Yahoo is part of Verizon’s digital media company, which is called Oath. Verizon revised the number of breached accounts to three billion after receiving new information

7am – B         Scalise Says His Belief In The Second Amendment Is Stronger Than Ever. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that his belief in the second amendment was “fortified” after the shooting in Las Vegas in an interview that will air at 7 pm Tuesday. MacCallum asked Scalise whether his own experience with gun violence or what he saw in Las Vegas changed his views on the Second Amendment.

“I think it’s fortified it. Because first of all you’ve got to recognize that when there’s a tragedy like this, the first thing we should be thinking about is praying for the people who were injured and doing whatever we can to help them, to help law enforcement. We shouldn’t first be thinking of promoting our political agenda,” Scalise replied. Scalise was severely injured in June when a gunman opened fire on a Congressional baseball practice in Arlington, Virginia.

7am – C         No Bones About It: D.C. Council Unanimously Passes Emergency Bill To Let Dogs On Patios. Don’t piss off dog owners, local officials learned, as the D.C. Council quickly took action to allow pooches on bar and restaurant patios. D.C. Code has had a longstanding rule against allowing most animals on the premises of food-serving establishments, but the law didn’t get in the way of the legions of people who often brought their four-legged friends to outdoor locations. Some establishments, like The Midlands, even had their own bar dogs. That changed when the D.C. Department of Health left flyers at The Midlands and Wonderland Ballroom, another Ward 1 spot, in September, telling them they could not allow animals, with the exception of service animals, on the premises. Doing so could incur a $500 fine. Establishments and their patrons alike characterized it as a “crackdown.” The outcry came quickly. Ward 7 Councilmember and Health Committee Chair Vincent Gray said he received “100 or more emails from people in the past two days complaining about this policy.” He worked with Ward 1’s Brianne Nadeau, Ward 4’s Brandon Todd, and Ward 6’s Charles Allen to introduce the Dining With Dogs Emergency Act of 2017. The bill, which passed unanimously on Tuesday at the D.C. Council, leaves it up to the establishment to decide whether it wants to allow dogs in outdoor dining areas or unenclosed sidewalk cafés, and can limit dogs based on their “breed, size, or temperament.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – SEN BEN CARDIN — D-MARYLAND

>> REACTION TO THE VEGAS SHOOTING

7am – E         U.S. expels 15 Cuban diplomats over mysterious health ‘attacks’ on Americans in Havana. (USA Today) – The State Department ordered 15 Cuban diplomats Tuesday to leave the United States from its Washington embassy, a move prompted by the mysterious illness affecting U.S. diplomatic personnel and family members in Havana. The U.S. last week decided to cut its own embassy staff in Havana by similar numbers “to minimize the number of diplomats at risk of exposure to harm.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SARAH WESTWOOD – White House correspondent for The Washington Examiner — discuss president’s trip to Puerto Rico and response to Vegas shootings

• Trump seeking to avoid gun debate during Vegas trip (pOLITICO) – The White House is seeking to delay any discussion of gun policy as it plans President Donald Trump’s trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday, following the mass shooting at an outdoor concert there earlier this week. Trump is expected to meet with victims of the Las Vegas shooting and visit an area hospital, according to a White House official. He is not expected to weigh in on any policy solutions during the trip. “With this investigation still in its early phases, we should avoid making sweeping policy decisions,” the White House official said.
• Congressional investigators have noticed a potential link between an April story in the Washington Post — in which the identity of a Trump associate was revealed in the context of information that could have been collected through surveillance activities — and an unmasking request made by former national security adviser Susan Rice weeks before the publication of that story, a source familiar with the investigation told the Washington Examiner.

8am – B         CONGRESS NEWS:

• GUN LEGISLATION: Speaker Ryan puts gun silencer bill on indefinite hold after Las Vegas shooting
• ABORTION: House Passes Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
• PLANE CONTROVERSY: Ryan asked White House to reconsider ousting Price

8am – C         AMAZON NEWS:

• City of Amazon proposed to attract company’s HQ2 to Georgia. The latest local pitch to attract Amazon? Create a city of Amazon for the company’s planned expansion site. The Stonecrest City Council voted 4-2 on Monday to de-annex 345 acres of land if the e-commerce giant picks the area for what the company calls HQ2, a corporate hub where Seattle-based Amazon says it will one day house 50,000 jobs. The city’s resolution asks the Georgia General Assembly to form the city of Amazon on that land, located off Lithonia Industrial Boulevard and Coffee Road in DeKalb County. “There are several major U.S. cities that want Amazon, but none has the branding opportunity we are now offering this visionary company,” said Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary. “How could you not want your 21st century headquarters to be located in a city named Amazon?” Amazon is seeking a 175-acre site located near an international airport, public transit and high quality of living. Lary said he hopes MARTA expands rail service to Stonecrest.
• Maryland is adding a new incentive, to try and persuade Amazon to locate its “second headquarters” in Maryland. A state board has voted to waive a 12-month residency requirement to qualify for in-state college tuition, for any Amazon employees who move to the state to work at the new headquarters.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – syndicated columnist – discuss the push for gun control

• Trump on gun debate: we’ll talk about gun laws as time goes on. We’ll talk that as time goes by.
• This 45-foot statue of a naked woman could be coming to the Mall for four months. (Washington Post) –  A 45-foot-tall statue of a nude woman, weighing in at 16,000 pounds, will greet visitors on the Mall for four months if activists have their way. They say the steel statue would stand in a yoga mountain pose near the Washington Monument facing the White House, depicting a strong woman feeling confident in her body. The massive artwork would be the main attraction at the annual ­“Catharsis on the Mall” in November — a festival in the nation’s capital dubbed a “Burning Man” for Washington. Burning Man, an annual desert festival outside Reno, Nev., is known for building a hippie-like community that promotes art, self-expression, inclusiveness and civic engagement. Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said the agency is reviewing permits for the statue, adding that it’s “plausible” that the agency would allow such a large and striking sculpture to remain through the winter months. Catharsis organizers want the statue in place through March.

8am – E         ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

• JIMMY KIMMEL LOSES BEING FUNNY AND GETS PREACHY ABOUT GUNS:
  • Jimmy Kimmel: Republicans Should “Pray to God to Forgive Them” Because They Caused the Las Vegas Shooting
  • Jimmy Kimmel increases security at show due to Trump supporters
• LENA DUNHAM:    Lena Dunham‏Verified account @lenadunham: No way not to politicize this tragedy. It’s about gender & race as well as access to guns. Considering it random is comforting & dangerous.
• STREISAND: Barbra Streisand offers her expert opinion on silencers: ‘How many more would have died?’  @BarbraStreisand: How many more people would have died if there were silencers on his guns? Stop the GOP silencer bill. 5:39 PM – Oct 3, 2017