Curious about today’s topics on The Larry O’Connor Show? Below are a few stories on the radar. Be sure to listen to The Larry O’Connor Show Monday – Friday 3pm – 6pm on WMAL.
The next time a Metro meltdown makes you late for work, you may be entitled to a refund.
A new program, billed the “Rush-Hour Promise,” would provide full refund credits to peak-period rail and Metrobus riders who encounter delays of 15 minutes or more — customers who are more likely than others to reduce their ridership or abandon Metro entirely, the agency said.
It’s Metro’s strongest appeal to riders who have grown weary of Metro’s chronic reliability problems and have fled the system in droves. The rail system’s average weekday ridership of 615,000 trips is down significantly from 2008 peaks of 750,000, with research showing at least 30 percent of the losses stemming from customers citing reliability concerns, according to Metro.
In board documents to be released Monday, Metro expresses concern that customers have been slow to return to the system after the year-long SafeTrack maintenance program. Furthermore, the agency says, “research shows that when a customer experiences a trip that takes 30 minutes or more than planned, they are significantly more likely to leave Metro entirely, or at a minimum, severely reduce how frequently they ride.” [Read More]
Maryland school fires teacher over connections to alt-right [The Hill]
A teacher at Maryland’s Academy of the Holy Cross has been fired after students discovered evidence he is a member of a white supremacist group.
Greg Conte, a substitute teacher and field hockey and track coach at the all-girls Catholic school, was reportedly fired in October, but the school sent a letter alerting families of the firing just last week.
Conte appears to use the name Gregory Ritter on Twitter, where he has posted a number of controversial tweets that could be considered racist and antisemitic, including one that said “Hitler did not commit any crimes,” according to D.C.’s Fox5.
“Prior to his firing, he was successfully using an alternate identity in his work with his atrocious group,” school president and CEO Kathleen Prebble wrote in the letter. “As for his potential impact on our girls, I conducted an investigation at the time of his firing and determined there was no reason to think that he negatively influenced any of our girls with his philosophy.” [Read More]
Byron York: With DC distracted, immigration debate reaches critical point [Washington Examiner]
While Washington obsesses over a new book on White House intrigue, the Trump administration is reaching a critical point on the issue of immigration, one of the president’s top priorities and the subject of his most often-repeated campaign promises.
There are multiple moving parts: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a border wall, chain migration, the visa lottery, and — hanging over it all — funding the government. But everything hinges on DACA, unilaterally imposed by Barack Obama to temporarily legalize nearly 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were young.
When President Trump rescinded DACA last Sept. 5, he delayed implementation for six months to give Congress time to come up with some sort of solution for the so-called Dreamers. That means lawmakers need to act by March 5 or face a decidedly uncertain future. [Read More]
Initial talks underway about Trump interview in Mueller Russia probe [NBC News]
Anticipating that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview President Donald Trump, the president’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Lawyers for Trump have been discussing with FBI investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
The discussions were described by one person with direct knowledge as preliminary and ongoing. Trump’s legal team is seeking clarification on whether the president would be interviewed directly by Mueller, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of a possible interview, the topics and the duration. But the president’s team is also seeking potential compromises that could avoid an interview altogether, two of those interviewed told NBC News. [Read More]
Tapper cuts off Miller after heated interview [The Hill]
CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday cut off a contentious interview with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, as the two sparred about President Trump and the news network.
“I get it. There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious and you’re being a factotum in order to please him, OK,” Tapper said on “State of the Union,” appearing to reference the president.
“And I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time. Thank you, Stephen,” Tapper added as he ended the interview.
Miller earlier had defended Trump during the appearance, which quickly degenerated as Miller criticized CNN for its coverage of the Trump White House.
“Not only do I think they help it, but I think in the toxic environment that you’ve created here and CNN and cable news, which is a real crisis of legitimacy for your network,” Miller said when asked about the president’s tweet claiming to be “a very stable genius.” [Read More]
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