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Mornings on the Mall

Friday, December 29, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Tony Shaffer

5am – A/B/C Comedian sued for turning men with tickets away from her women-only show (Fox News) Former “Last Comic Standing” winner Iliza Shlesinger is reportedly being sued after hosting a comedy show in Los Angeles that didn’t allow men to attend. Now, she’s facing rhetoric likening one man’s incident to the Civil Rights movement.The Hollywood Reporter obtained legal documents in which a man named George St. George alleges he purchased two tickets to the comedian’s Nov. 13 show, titled “Girls Night In WIth Iliza — No Boys Allowed.” When he arrived to pick them up at will call, he was told that he would have to sit in the back of the theater because of his gender. He and a friend went to get food and, when they returned, were told that Shlesinger and the theater had decided that no men would be admitted to the show, and they were offered a refund for their ticket.

5am – D Rasmussen: Trump’s Approval Rating at 46 Percent High (Newsmax) President Donald Trump’s approval rating hit 46 percent in a daily tracking poll released Thursday — his best mark by the pollster in over a month. The Rasmussen Reports survey also showed 53 percent disapproved of Trump’s job performance. The Rasmussen results come a day after two other polls showed less positive results: a Gallup survey found Trump’s approval at 38 percent, and disapproval at 56 percent; an Economist/YouGov poll showed approval at 43 percent, and disapproval at 53 percent. The president hailed the Rasmussen results.

5am – E  Two Romanians Hacked Washington Police Cameras, DOJ Says (Daily Caller) The United States has charged two Romanian nationals, alleging that they hacked the Washington police department’s surveillance cameras days before U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the Department of Justice said on Thursday. Mihai Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru were arrested in Romania on Dec. 15 over the incident, which compromised Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department camera computers as part of a ransomware scheme, the Justice Department said in a statement.“This case was of the highest priority due to its impact on the Secret Service’s protective mission and its potential effect on the security plan for the 2017 Presidential Inauguration,” the statement said.

6am – A/B/C Americans are dying younger than people in other rich nations (Washington Post) American lives are shorter on average than those in other wealthy nations, and the gap is growing ever wider, according to the latest data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As recently as 1979, the typical American could expect to live roughly 1.5 years longer than the average resident of one of the other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — a group of 35 wealthy, predominantly Western nations. The typical American baby born in 1979 could expect to live about 73.9 years, while the typical baby born in one of the other 34 OECD countries would live roughly to age 72.3. But by 2015 that gap had flipped. The average American born that year could expect to live a little less than 79 years, while the typical baby born in an OECD country had an expected life span of nearly 81 years.

6am – D  Sanctuary policy blamed for murder of MS-13 gang member released from jail (Fox News) A Maryland county’s refusal to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have led to an alleged MS-13 gang member’s death two days after he was released from jail. Jose Herrera, 18, was initally arrested and charged in October by the Montgomery County Police Department with fourth-degree burglary and trespassing after he was found squatting in a vacant home with others believed to be members of the ruthless MS-13 gang, WJLA reported. The gang reportedly took the vacated home and made it into a “hideout with graffiti, a built-in bar and shrine to the ‘Saint of Death,’” NBC Washington reported. The home was scheduled to be demolished in order to pave the way for the Purple Line rail project. Herrera, a native of Honduras, traveled into the U.S. illegally and was given a criminal summons for the October arrest but a warrant was issued after he failed to appear in court. He was again arrested on Dec. 12 but released on Dec. 22 after posting a $100 bond. ICE said the alleged gang member was released despite a detainer the agency claimed it lodged in October.

6am – E  Make your Reservations to the New Year’s Eve Gala!

6am – F  AMC considering charging different prices for seats within the same theater (Slash Films) At the AMC Universal CityWalk 19 in Los Angeles – the AMC Theaters location that’s closest to where I live – a single ticket to see a non-matinee screening tonight currently costs $17.75 (plus a $1.75 convenience fee for ordering the ticket online, bringing the total to $19.50). Now we’ve learned that AMC is looking into the possibility of charging different prices for different seats within the same theater. Is there any upside here?

7am – A INTERVIEW: Sarah Westwood – White House reporter for the Washington Examiner

Topic: Trumps Accomplishments this year

• President Trump in October said “perhaps no administration” had done more in its first nine months than his. That was before he succeeded in overhauling the decades-old tax code and repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate.
• Despite all the criticism Trump received during his first year in office for inflammatory tweets, West Wing feuds, controversial policies, and diplomatic stumbles, he will nevertheless enter year two with a laundry list of achievements.

7am – B Newt Gingrich: Get ready for the great political surprise of 2018 (Fox News) The great political surprise of 2018 will be the size of the Republican victory.

After members of the elite media have spent two years savaging President Trump, lying about Republican legislation, and reassuring themselves that Republican defeat was inevitable, the size of the GOP victory in 2018 will be an enormous shock.

7am – C How many alcoholic drinks are too many per week? (USA Today) Based on per capita consumption from alcoholic beverage sales data, the average American drinks roughly 1.35 drinks per day, 9.5 drinks per week and 494 drinks per year, said Aaron White, senior scientific advisor to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism director. But, White said that number is higher — 1.94 drinks a day, 13.6 per week and 705 a year when adjusting for age (looking at just adults 18 and older, the majority of the nation’s drinkers).

7am – D  INTERVIEW: Chris Farrell – Judicial Watch Director of Investigations and Research

Topic: Biggest Judicial Watch accomplishments in 2017 and cases to come

7am – E Bono: ‘Music has gotten very girly’ (BBC) U2 frontman Bono has criticised what he says is a lack of rock and roll in today’s music. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the singer said: “I think music has gotten very girly. “And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that’s not good.” He added that one of his sons, Elijah, “believes that a rock and roll revolution is around the corner”. And the singer said he agreed with his son that the genre “will return”.

8am – A INTERVIEW: John McCarthy – State’s Attorney For Montgomery County

Topic: Rise of MS -13 in Montgomery County.

• A Maryland county’s refusal to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have led to an alleged MS-13 gang member’s death two days after he was released from jail.

8am – B House Intel Dem: Public ‘Already Aware Of’ Most Evidence Against Trump (Daily Caller) A Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee made a surprise admission on Thursday about the findings of the panel’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. “You know, I’m not sure I’ve seen a lot that the American people aren’t already aware of,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes said during an interview on CNN’s “New Day.” Himes had been asked whether he has seen any evidence during the committee’s 11-month investigation of any criminal activity on the part of the Trump campaign. The lawmaker’s response suggested that he has not.

8am – C  People keep uploading Hamilton to PornHub (AV Club) In news that might be good for Hamilton fans—but bad for those sincerely looking for erotic footage of “revolutionary twinks”—it looks like admirers of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout historical musical might have a new venue in which to indulge their love of rhythmically rhyming founding fathers: PornHub.

8am – D Gold Star Father Credits Trump Administration’s Relaxed Rules of Engagement for Saving Lives (Breitbart) Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Gold Star father Billy Vaughn praised the loosened rules of engagement President Donald Trump authorized Defense Secretary James Mattis to operate with. Vaughn, whose Navy SEAL son, Aaron, was killed in 2011 when his chopper was shot down in Afghanistan, said there was no pre-assault fire the night his son was killed — a result of Obama’s restrictive rules of engagement. “[T]hat night, the AC-130 overhead asking to engage multiple times enemy combatants on the ground was not allowed to engage those enemy combatants with weapons and it’s very likely that one of those enemy combatants took that chopper down that night,” Billy Vaughn said of the night his son was killed. Under Trump, U.S. forces are no longer required to be in contact with enemy forces before opening fire and fighters on the ground would also have more authority to make decisions, which Vaughn said will help save the lives of military members.

8am – E Make your Reservations to the New Year’s Eve Gala!