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Mornings on the Mall

Monday, January 15, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm; officials blame employee who pushed ‘wrong button’ (CNN) An emergency alert notification sent out on Saturday claiming a “ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii” was a false alarm, according to state leaders and emergency officials, who blamed it on an employee who “pushed the wrong button.” “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the emergency alert read. While the message caused concern on social media, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency quickly responded on Twitter, saying, “NO missile threat to Hawaii.” Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that human error caused the alert to go out. “It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” he said. The warning went out to television and radio as well as cell phones, Ige added. Ige also tweeted that he is meeting with top defense and emergency management officials from the state “to determine what caused this morning’s false alarm and to prevent it from happening again.”

5am – D Dick Durbin admonishes Trump for ‘s**thole’ comments (CNN) Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, a key negotiator in immigration talks, rebuked President Donald Trump on Friday morning for referring to African nations as “s**thole” countries. In a news conference, Durbin, who had been in the White House meeting where the comments were made, described Trump’s words as “hate filled, vile and racist” and told reporters. Durbin described his shock when hearing Trump’s words. “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Durbin said. “He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,” said Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Amid the fallout from the comments, Trump tweeted Friday morning, “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!”

5am – E   U.S. ultimatum on nuclear deal, new sanctions draw Iran threat (Reuters) Iran said on Saturday it would retaliate against new sanctions imposed by the United States after President Donald Trump set an ultimatum to fix “disastrous flaws” in a deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

6am – A INTERVIEW: Behnam Ben Taleblu – Senior Iran Analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies

TOPICL:  Iran sanctions

• Iran says the US has “crossed a red line” by imposing sanctions on the head of its judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani.
• The foreign ministry vowed to retaliate but did not say what form any action might take.
• Iran also rejected any changes to its nuclear deal with world powers.
• US President Donald Trump, a critic of the 2015 accord to prevent Iran developing nuclear arms, said he would extend sanctions relief one last time.

6am – B/C “I Quit!” A Millennial’s New Mantra For Success (Forbes) The new year greeted us with positive employment data.  All those programs and policies put in place by the Obama administration and supported by the Trump administration are finally taking hold!  And, all Americans are enjoying the benefits. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is down to 4.1 percent. The recent data is great news for the underemployed Millennial baristas as well as the Baby Boomers, who were staying on long enough to recover losses in their 401(k) portfolios. Now, the Baby Boomers are saying, “Bye, Bye, Bye” and opening the doors for Millennials.

6am – D/E/F Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm; officials blame employee who pushed ‘wrong button’ (CNN) An emergency alert notification sent out on Saturday claiming a “ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii” was a false alarm, according to state leaders and emergency officials, who blamed it on an employee who “pushed the wrong button.” “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the emergency alert read. While the message caused concern on social media, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency quickly responded on Twitter, saying, “NO missile threat to Hawaii.” Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that human error caused the alert to go out. “It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” he said. The warning went out to television and radio as well as cell phones, Ige added. Ige also tweeted that he is meeting with top defense and emergency management officials from the state “to determine what caused this morning’s false alarm and to prevent it from happening again.”

7am – A B/C Dick Durbin admonishes Trump for ‘s**thole’ comments (CNN) Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, a key negotiator in immigration talks, rebuked President Donald Trump on Friday morning for referring to African nations as “s**thole” countries. In a news conference, Durbin, who had been in the White House meeting where the comments were made, described Trump’s words as “hate filled, vile and racist” and told reporters. Durbin described his shock when hearing Trump’s words. “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Durbin said. “He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,” said Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Amid the fallout from the comments, Trump tweeted Friday morning, “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!”

7am – D  Condoleezza Rice: Let’s not turn women into ‘snowflakes’ (The Hill) Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned in a new interview that people should not “turn women into snowflakes.” Rice told CNN’s “The Axe Files” that she thinks the #MeToo movement is a “good thing,” but she issued a warning about how people should react to it. “Let’s not turn women into snowflakes. Let’s not infantilize women,” she said. The country shouldn’t get to a place where “men start to think, ‘Well, maybe it’s just better not to have women around,’ ” she said. “I’ve heard a little bit of that. And it, it worries me,” she said.

 7am – E Obama rips Fox News viewers: ‘You are living on a different planet’ (Fox News) Former President Barack Obama resurfaced on Friday and took a shot at Fox News viewers, saying they’re “living on a different planet” than people who consume mainstream media. Obama made the remarks on the premiere of the new monthly Netflix series “My next guest needs no introduction with David Letterman,” which hit the streaming service on Friday morning. Early in the episode, Obama asked Letterman about his retirement but the veteran talk show host quickly let the former president know who was boss.

8am – A  INTERVIEW: Behnam Ben Taleblu – Senior Iran Analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies

TOPICL:  Iran sanctions

• Iran says the US has “crossed a red line” by imposing sanctions on the head of its judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani.
• The foreign ministry vowed to retaliate but did not say what form any action might take.
• Iran also rejected any changes to its nuclear deal with world powers.
• US President Donald Trump, a critic of the 2015 accord to prevent Iran developing nuclear arms, said he would extend sanctions relief one last time.

 8am – B/C  Obama rips Fox News viewers: ‘You are living on a different planet’ (Fox News) Former President Barack Obama resurfaced on Friday and took a shot at Fox News viewers, saying they’re “living on a different planet” than people who consume mainstream media. Obama made the remarks on the premiere of the new monthly Netflix series “My next guest needs no introduction with David Letterman,” which hit the streaming service on Friday morning. Early in the episode, Obama asked Letterman about his retirement but the veteran talk show host quickly let the former president know who was boss.

8am – D/E  This Gym Chain Is Banning Cable News From its TVs Because It’s Stressing People Out (Time) Many people can feel stressed by the news these days, but one gym chain has taken the unusual step of erasing it from TV screens in its locations.Minnesota-based Life Time, which has 130 locations in 27 states, has removed cable news from the TVs in its gyms, including MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, the New York Times reports. The chain says it received numerous requests over many years asking for such channels to be removed, so that members can reduce stress while improving their health.