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Mornings on the Mall
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Hosts: Mary Walter and Hans Von Spakovsky
5am – A/B Hans’ Family Christmas Story
5am – C Christmas display causes controversy in Adams County community (Fox)
An Adams County family is fighting back after the homeowners association where they live demanded the removal of a disputed item, a piece of wood that says Jesus on it, from their yard. Mark and Lynn Wivell say they wanted to make a statement with their Christmas decorations this year. “As part of our Christmas decoration, we would display the name Jesus to point out to everyone that we in this family believe that the reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of Jesus,” said Mark Wivell, who put the display up on Saturday. But where the Wivells live, their homeowners association has a big say in what can go up or come down. The HOA told them Sunday a neighbor found their Jesus sign offensive, and a day later said signage like this was not allowed. But the Wivells contend that it’s not a sign, rather a Christmas decoration.
5am – D Navy grants fitness amnesty to 48,000 sailors who failed test (Navy Times) The Navy will grant a clean slate to nearly 50,000 sailors with fitness failures in their records, part of new shakeup for fleet-wide fitness rules announced Thursday. A new Navy-wide message instructs commands to immediately stop discharging sailors for fitness failures and to cancel any pending discharges for sailors slated to be kicked out after March 31. The change applies to both enlisted and officers. The message also unveils a new set of rules for the Physical Fitness Assessment, bringing to an end the rules forcing sailors to leave the Navy if they failed two fitness assessment tests in a three-year period. The Navy’s Physical Fitness Assessment, or PFA, is a two-part process consisting of a Body Composition Assessment and a Physical Readiness Test. The test grades sailors, based on their age, on push-ups, sit-ups and a 1.5-mile run. Other major changes will include making sailors take a body fat test immediately after reporting to a new command and also making sailors who fail the fitness test ineligible for advancement or frocking.
5am – E Facing Republican attacks, FBI’s deputy director plans to retire early next year (Washington Post) Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s deputy director who has been the target of Republican critics for more than a year, plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, according to people familiar with the matter. McCabe spent hours in Congress this past week, facing questions behind closed doors from members of three committees. Republicans said they were dissatisfied with his answers; Democrats called it a partisan hounding. McCabe, 49, holds a unique position in the political firestorm surrounding the FBI . He was former director James B. Comey’s right-hand man, a position that involved him in most of the FBI’s actions that vex President Trump and in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, a matter that still riles Democrats. McCabe won’t become eligible for his full pension until early March.
6am – A/B/C FNC’s Peters: Haley ‘May End up as Our First Female President’ – We Could Have Handled UN Vote A Little Better (Breitbart) On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Intelligence Report,” Fox News strategic analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (Ret.) argued that while the United States could have handled the United Nation’s Jerusalem voter better than it did, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley “may end up as our first female president.” Peters said, “I think Nikki Haley may end up as our first female president. I fully support moving our embassy to Jerusalem, and God knows we can use a tougher line at the UN.” He added, “I think we could have handled this particular case a little bit better.”
6am – D Chain Migration News: DHS: Chain Migration Imported Terror Suspect Accused of Targeting Pennsylvania Police (Breitbart) The terror suspect accused of targeting police officers in Pennsylvania entered the United States as a foreign relative of a newly naturalized immigrant, a process known as “chain migration,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Pakistani Woman Accused of Sending Bitcoin to Islamic State Entered U.S. Through Chain Migration (Breitbart) A woman accused of sending Bitcoin digital currency to send thousands of dollars to Islamic State (ISIS) fighters was able to the enter the U.S. as a foreign relative of a newly naturalized immigrant through the process known as “chain migration.” Under chain migration, newly naturalized immigrants to the U.S. can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country with them. Chain migration, denounced repeatedly by President Trump, has imported more than nine million foreign relatives of immigrants to the U.S. since 2005, Breitbart News reported.
6am – E Bananas in bunches of trouble (post and courier) The banana industry is going bonkers, or bananas if you prefer, because its main variety currently has no defense against a new pathogen that is already destroying crops in Southeast Asia. Some experts are predicting that the Cavendish banana — the source of 95 percent of all commercial banana sales — will not survive beyond the next decade, according to Bloomberg News. That disaster has happened before. Seedless commercial bananas are produced as clones of each other and that leaves banana plantations vulnerable to rapidly spreading infections. Before Cavendish the main cultivar was called Gros Michel, or Big Mike. It was virtually wiped out in the 1950s by a fungus known as the Panama Disease. An earlier attack by the same fungus caused such a shortage of Big Mike bananas in the early 1920s that it inspired the song, “Yes, We Have No Bananas.”
6am – F Parents give teacher wine with son’s face on label for Christmas (Fox News) It’s either a teacher’s favorite gift or their worst nightmare. A student in Ohio posted photos on Twitter of the gift one of his parents gave his little brother’s teacher for Christmas and it’s, if nothing else, unique. The parents got bottles of wine for the younger Sommers boy’s teacher, but the labels on the bottles were replaced with a photo of the student. “My parents always get our elementary school teachers a present around Christmas. Typically something small like a candle or flower to say thank you. This year they got them bottles of wine & replaced the labels with their own with my brother on them… Happy holidays,” DJ wrote on Twitter. The label also contains a special message: “Our child might be the reason you drink, so enjoy this bottle on us.”
7am – A/ B Interview – Joe diGenova – legal analyst
TOPIC – looking back at 2017 and Joe’s thoughts on top narratives for the year
7am – C The Trump Family’s Christmas Greeting
7am – D/E What would you like to see the Republicans pursue next? Trump’s Top Priority for 2018 (The Fiscal Times) The White House has yet to finalize its top priorities for 2018, according to reports, but the administration would like to pursue infrastructure, “welfare reform,” or both. Either path would entail political risks. “What you need for infrastructure is new money, and I don’t see where they’re going to get it,” Sen. Mark Warner said Thursday at an event sponsored by Axios. And conservatives may balk at increased spending.Top of FormBottom of Form Welfare or entitlement reform won’t attract Democratic support, and could spark a fervent backlash along the lines seen earlier this year when Republicans sought to repeal and replace Obamacare.
8am – A Interview – Ric Edelman – financial planning guru, host of The Ric Edelman Show on WMAL and bestselling author thor of “The Truth About Your Future”
TOPIC: Prepping for 2018: tips on financial planning for the new year
8am – B Hans’ Family Christmas Story
8am – C Remembering the Battle of the Bulge 73 years ago.
8am – D Interview – Trevor Matich – WMAL’s Redskins analyst
TOPIC: Recap Redskins Christmas Eve victory
8am – E Apple’s Face ID fails to distinguish between Chinese users (Mirror)
Apple has been accused of racism, amid reports that the Face ID authentication technology on its new iPhone X is failing to distinguish between Chinese users. A man from Shanghai bought his wife the new gadget soon after it was released last month, but she was shocked to discover it could be unlocked by her teenage son. The man, identified only by his surname Liu, reported the issue to Apple’s customer services. He was told it was an isolated case and was due to the fact his wife and son look very similar. “Our son was using it and didn’t know the password,” he said, according to Shandong TV Station . Apple has reportedly launched an investigation into the Liu family’s claims. This is not the first reported incident of Chinese users being able to unlock each other’s iPhone Xs. Last week, AsiaOne reported that a woman from Nanjing discovered her colleague – who is not related to her – was able to unlock her phone using Face ID.
