Mark Krikorian, Steve Moore, and Chuck Thies joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Is Jeff Sessions going to win his legal battle with California?

• Sessions unloads on California Dems for ‘radical, open borders agenda’ (Fox News) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday unloaded on California Democrats who push a “radical, open borders agenda,” as his Justice Department sued the state over its immigration policies —  warning that there “will be no secession.” Sessions spoke at an event for California law enforcement and a day after the Justice Department announced it was filing a lawsuit against the “sanctuary city” state over three pieces of legislation that it said interferes with federal immigration policy. In his remarks, Sessions noted “worrisome” trends as violent crime increased in 2014 and 2015, particularly a surge in homicide and drug availability. He said that a lawful immigration system was part of tackling such trends. Sessions said that while America admits the highest number of legal immigrants in the world, the American people deserve a legal, rational immigration system that protects the nation and preserves the national interest.

• Jerry Brown lashes out at Jeff Sessions for ‘sad political stunt’  (San Francisco Gate) — California Governor Jerry Brown is calling U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ lawsuit against California a “sad political stunt,” and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom is saying the Trump administration is bullying the state. In an effort led by Sessions, the U.S. Justice Department filed a suit Tuesday aimed directly at blocking California laws which extend protections to undocumented people living in the U.S.  The department is challenging three California laws that, among other things, bar police from asking people about their citizenship status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities. The suit filed in federal court in Sacramento says the laws are unconstitutional and have kept federal agents from doing their jobs. “The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you,” Sessions said in prepared remarks. “I believe that we are going to win.”

5am – D         Tariff News:

• Trump to sign tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum at White House Thursday afternoon (USA Today) — President Trump is preparing to sign off on new tariffs for steel and aluminum exports as early as Thursday, even amid more Republican objections and uncertainty about whether some countries may be exempted, according to two administration officials. Late Wednesday, the White House was pulling together details of a formal ceremony as aides suggested some countries might be exempted from the tariffs, including Mexico and Canada. But, adding to the confusion, Wednesday night when the White House released its schedule for Thursday, no signing ceremony was listed. After telegraphing that President Trump would sign his long-awaited tariff actions Thursday, the White House has no such event appearing on his public schedule.  — Gregory Korte (@gregorykorte) March 8, 2018
• White House Confirms Breitbart Scoop: Trump May Provide Canada and Mexico With Tariff ‘Carve-Outs’ (Breitbart) — The White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump may allow exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs when the president signs the new trade restrictions later this week, a new position first reported by Breitbart News. “We expect that the president will sign something by the end of the week. And there are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada based on national security and possibly other countries as well based on that process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday.

5am – E         Russian Ambassador: It’s Been Pretty Lonely Here In Washington (Hot Air) — He throws parties. He plays bluegrass on his podcasts — Russian bluegrass, that is. But darn it, people in Washington DC just don’t like Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov — or at least they don’t want to be seen near him. Antonov, who took over the position from Sergei Kislyak after the latter became a household name in the Russian-interference narrative, blames “Russophobia” for his diplomatic isolation in the US, Politico’s Nahal Toosi reports: Antonov’s first meeting with a U.S. lawmaker came three months into his tenure, when he sat down in December with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. His most recent, with Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, took place on Tuesday. “The Congress, overwhelmed by Russophobia, is led by politically biased emotions, rather than a clear-thinking mind,” the Kremlin envoy told a POLITICO reporter, who interviewed him in a combination of written and face-to-face chats. “We are bluntly told they fear criticism.” U.S. lawmakers are going beyond the silent treatment. Some successfully pushed the District of Columbia to recently rename a stretch of road outside the Russian Embassy to honor Boris Nemtsov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was gunned down near the Kremlin in 2015.

6am – A/B/C Do you prefer having a son or a daughter?

• Americans Might No Longer Prefer Sons Over Daughters (New York Times) — Around the world, parents have typically preferred to have sons more than daughters, and American parents have been no different. But there are signs that’s changing. It may be because there’s less bias against girls, and possibly more bias against boys. Gallup surveyed Americans 10 times from 1941 to 2011, and their answers remained virtually unchanged: If they could have one child, 40 percent would prefer a boy and 28 percent a girl (the rest showed no preference). A new study, however, measured that preference in a different way. While having a daughter versus a son used to make American parents more likely to keep having children, theoretically to try for a son, now the opposite is true: Having a daughter makes it less likely that they keep having children. Some data from adoptions and fertility procedures that allow parents to choose the sex of their baby also shows a preference, to varying degrees, for girls. First- and second-generation American immigrants, the new study found, continue to show a preference for sons. They are more likely to keep having babies after having a daughter — particularly if they are from countries with less gender equity and lower female labor force participation.

6am – D         School Safety News:

• FBI staffers knew warnings about Nikolas Cruz were related but closed the case, lawmakers learn
• Nikolas Cruz indicted on 17 counts of murder for Florida school shooting
• Connecticut Governor: The NRA Has Become a ‘Terrorist Organization’
• Parkland Students Disappointed In Betsy DeVos’ Brief Visit To Their School
• Poll: 74% Of Democrats Want To Ban All Semiautomatic Rifles — But Youngest Adults Disagree

6am – E         Report: Mayor Bowser will not testify at council hearing on Antwan Wilson’s resignation (Fox 5 DC) — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she will not testify at an emergency council hearing regarding the resignation of former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson, according to a report by the Washington Post. This news comes one day after FOX 5 reporter Marina Marraco spoke to Bowser, pressing for answers on the same issue. While Bowser would not go on record with FOX 5, she told The Post she would not testify. According to the report, Bowser said she believes the hearing will be a political circus and that her office is cooperating with the inspector general, who is also investigating the matter. Councilman David Grosso, who heads the Education Committee, called for the emergency hearing, asking Bowser to testify under oath about Wilson’s departure. It’s not clear when the hearing will take place. “The public deserves to know the truth about the chronology of these events and how it was handled,” Grosso said in part in a statement. “Therefore, as the Chairperson of the Committee on Education, I will hold an emergency roundtable and call for the Mayor and all involved parties to testify before the Council.” “We lost two of our top education leaders in the District of Columbia to a scandal and due to its persistent nature we need to fully understand who knew what, when they knew it, and if those who were held accountable we done so appropriately,” Grosso’s statement said. Wilson, who resigned last month following the school lottery scandal, claims Mayor Bowser knew several months ago that he had planned to transfer his daughter to a new school. Speaking out for the first time since stepping down, Wilson told FOX 5 he personally told the mayor back in September that his daughter would bypass the District’s school lottery system to secure a transfer to a sought-after high school.

6am – F         McDonald’s is flipping its iconic arches upside down in an unprecedented statement (Business Insider) — A McDonald’s in Lynwood, California, has turned its golden-arches sign upside down. The company says it did so in “celebration of women everywhere.” McDonald’s is flipping its logo on all its digital channels to celebrate International Women’s Day on Thursday. People driving by a McDonald’s in Lynwood, California, might be baffled by an upside-down sign. The golden arches, typically standing as an M, have been flipped over to become a W. But this isn’t a bizarre prank or a careless mistake. The upside-down arches are in “celebration of women everywhere,” a McDonald’s representative told Business Insider in an email. Patricia Williams, the location’s franchisee, flipped her restaurant’s sign in honor of International Women’s Day on Thursday. McDonald’s says it will turn its logo upside down on all its digital channels, such as Twitter and Instagram, on Thursday, while 100 restaurants will have special “packaging, crew shirts and hats, and bag stuffers” to celebrate.

7am – A   INTERVIEW – MARK KRIKORIAN –  a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) – discussed the brewing legal war between the Justice Department, the legality of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warning illegal aliens of impending ICE raids, and President Trump appealing to “Dreamers.”

• Sessions unloads on California Dems for ‘radical, open borders agenda’
• Jerry Brown lashes out at Jeff Sessions for ‘sad political stunt’ 

• ‘How Dare You’ — Jeff Sessions Drops The Hammer On California Politicians With A ‘Radical, Open Borders Agenda’
• Oakland mayor asks Jeff Sessions ‘How dare you?’ after California ‘sanctuary’ lawsuit
• President Trump to Latino conference: Democrats ‘nowhere to be found’ on DACA

7am – B         Tech News:

• Facebook Really Is Spying on You, Just Not Through Your Phone’s Mic
• Hate your selfie? There may be a good reason, a new study says.
• Great News: Alexa Devices Are Freaking People Out By Randomly Laughing

7am – C         DC METRO’s MARKETING DIRECTOR SLAMS SWAG ‘HATERS’: Thanks haters!!!  We are making money!”

• Metro opened a gift shop. The Internet mocked it. But the true believers came. (Washington Post) — The haters were out for Jawauna Greene. “I think @joseyg717 needs to be fired,” one wrote on Twitter. “Ridiculous and tone deaf,” said another. She kept scrolling, a little bothered now, and sent a screenshot to her daughter. Greene’s job — marketing director for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority — was to be a “good news person,” to lure the locals into loving an institution they love to mock.  She had tried new advertisements, a new slogan (#Back2Good!) and now, she was trying what seemed to her like an obvious win: a swag store, featuring merchandise branded with the signs and symbols of Metro. It had worked in New York and London (Mind the Gap!), so why not here?

7am – D         Jeff Sessions ‘Seriously’ Considering Second Special Counsel (Daily Caller) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Fox News’ Shannon Bream Wednesday that he “will consider” naming a second special counsel to probe the FBI and Justice Department’s investigations into possible collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. “Well, I have great respect for Mr. Gowdy and Chairman Goodlatte, and we are going to consider seriously their recommendations,” Sessions told Bream in an interview that ran late Wednesday night. “I have appointed a person outside of Washington — many years at the Department of Justice — to look at all of the allegations that the House Judiciary Committee members sent to us and we are conducting that investigation.” He also stated he is “well aware that we have a responsibility to ensure the integrity of the FISA process.” “We are not afraid to look at that,” the former Alabama senator explained. “The inspector general, something that our inspector general is not very strong, but he has almost 500 employees, most of which are lawyers and prosecutors, and they are looking at the FISA process.” “We must make sure it is done properly, and we are going to do that, and I will consider the request.” Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan told The Daily Caller earlier in the week that the second special counsel should be “someone from Oklahoma, Iowa, somewhere from the middle of the country.”

7am – E         VA REPORT SHOWS VA SEC HAS NOT FIXED PROBLEMS (Daily Mail) — A stinging internal investigation finds ‘failed leadership at multiple levels’ at the Veterans Administration during the Obama administration that put patients at a major hospital at risk. It’s another blow to current Secretary David Shulkin, who also served at the agency then and now is fighting to keep his job. The 150-page report by the VA internal watchdog offers new details to its preliminary finding last April of patient safety issues at the Washington, D.C., medical center. Painting a grim picture of communications breakdowns, chaos and spending waste at the government’s second largest department, the report found that at least three VA program offices directly under Shulkin’s watch knew of ‘serious, persistent deficiencies’ when he was VA undersecretary of health from 2015 to 2016, but stopped short of saying whether he was told about them.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Economist at The Heritage Foundation and served as an economic adviser to the Trump campaign – discussed talk of Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn as Chief Economic Advisor, President Trump’s tariff plan, and the upcoming meeting to officially unveil the tariff plan

8am – B         More on AG Sessions vs. California

8am – C         The Best Time of Day to Drink Coffee, According to Science (Inc.com) —

There’s a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that controls your cortisol (a.k.a. the stress hormone), which, when present, makes you feel alert and, when absent, makes you feel sleepy. Just like caffeine. The SCN releases cortisol according to your circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle that’s slightly different for everyone. Early birds and night owls, for example, have circadian rhythms that are offset from each other by about 12 hours. According to neuroscientist Steven L. Miller, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, drinking coffee when your SCN is already releasing plenty of cortisol limits its positive effects because you’re already “wired up.”

In other words, coffee + cortisol = extra stress (which is bad for your health). By contrast, if you drink coffee when your cortisol levels are low, it smooths out your mood and energy level so that you can get more done without getting the jitters. For the average person, (i.e., somebody who rises at or around 6:30 a.m.), cortisol levels peak at:

8 to 9 a.m.

Noon to 1 p.m.

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

For early birds (like Apple CEO Tim Cook, who rises at 3:45 a.m.), you adjust those numbers back about three hours.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – CHUCK THIES – – political strategist and former Mayor Vincent Gray campaign manager and close friend/adviser to Gray – discussed the ongoing D.C schools scandal involving the DCPS Chancellor Antwon Wilson, news that Mayor Muriel Bowser will not testify about Wilson’s resignation, and the future of local D.C. politics

8am – E         Pressure mounting on Warren to take DNA test (Boston Globe) — Taking a DNA test could solve at least one of Elizabeth Warren’s problems. Elizabeth Warren has a problem. Actually, several. It’s not President Trump calling her Pocahontas. It’s the liberal Berkshire Eagle, asking her to take a DNA test and back up “family lore” with scientific evidence of Native American ancestry. It’s not Mitch McConnell. It’s a dozen Senate Democrats who, according to Politico, are ready to defy her, by joining their Republican colleagues to pass a bill that weakens banking regulations and undermines her signature cause. And, it’s not Bernie Sanders. It’s Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, who can look over the border and project a New Hampshire primary win. No one from Massachusetts has made it to the Oval Office since Jack Kennedy. But that track record doesn’t dissuade Bay State dreamers from their Granite State game plan.