Ken Boone, Cal Thomas, MD Del. Deborah Rey, Byron York, and Rachel Weiner joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Was this the right solution by the Parents?

• Parents: Teen confessed plan to attack Paw Paw HS (WOOD TV) — A 15-year-old who allegedly planned to attack Paw Paw High School but then changed his mind could be tried as an adult. “He came to us and said that he’s been really upset and said that he’s been planning to do something bad,” the boy’s stepfather told 24 Hour News 8 Monday. “It was a big shock.” The 15-year-old Paw Paw High School student, who 24 Hour News 8 is not identifying because he is a minor, was arraigned Monday afternoon on eight criminal charges: Two felony counts of larceny of firearms. Two felony counts of possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle. Two felony counts of felony firearm. A felony count of attempted manufacture of explosives. A misdemeanor count of possession of a Molotov cocktail explosive device. The teen’s parents told 24 Hour News 8 he had been bullied since coming to the district last year, and that things got worse after a photo of the teen in his underwear taken last summer somehow began to circulate among his fellow students.

5am – D         INTERVIEW – KEN BOONE – Weather Channel Meteorologist – discussed the forecast for today’s snowfall

• Today: Periods of snow. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 100%. Snow accumulating 4 to 8 inches.
• Tonight: Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the evening. Low 32F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
• Tomorrow: Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 47F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph.

5am – E         Student gunman dies after Maryland school shooting; two other students injured (Washington Post) — When the commotion about someone with a gun began Tuesday, Isiah Tichenor, 18, stepped into the hallway at Great Mills High School to pull shut his classroom’s door but instead found himself watching the climax of a school shooting. He said he saw a classmate with a gun to his own head as a school resource officer rounded a corner at the Southern Maryland school. Tichenor ducked back inside the classroom as he heard shouting. “Put the gun down!” the officer yelled. “We know you don’t want to hurt anyone.” The officer ordered the student to drop the gun again before two shots sounded, marking the end of the latest school shooting in a nation weary of them. The shooter, identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, was hit and later died at a hospital. A female and a male student, ages 16 and 14, were injured and hospitalized.

6am – A         Stormy Daniels News:

• Stormy Daniels’ lawyer paid $25,000 yesterday to get the lie detector test video

• Stormy Daniels passed a 2011 lie detector test about sex with Trump, according to documents obtained by @nbcnews

• A “MODEL” WANTS OUT OF HER NON-DISCLOSURE WITH TRUMP

• SUMMER ZERVOS’S SUIT MOVES FORWARD

6am – B         YouTuber Count Dankula Who Taught Dog Nazi Salute Faces Jail for Hate Crime (Newsweek) — A man is facing jail after he was convicted of a hate crime for uploading a video of him teaching his girlfriend’s dog to give a Nazi Sieg Heil salute and respond excitedly to the phrase “gas the Jews.” Markus Meechan, 30, from North Lanarkshire, Scotland, went viral in 2016 after he posted a video on YouTube entitled “M8 yer dugs a Nazi,”—Scottish argot for “mate, your dog is a Nazi.” In the video, which went on to be viewed more than 3 million times, Meechan explains he wanted to turn his girlfriend’s pug, Buddha, into the “least cute thing I could think of” and so wanted to turn it into a Nazi. The clip then shows Buddha raising his paw whenever Meechan calls out “Sieg Heil” and react to the question “you want to gas the Jews?” The video also sees Meechan playing speeches by Adolf Hitler to the dog. Following outcry over the video, Meechan was arrested and charged with suspicion of a hate crime and an alleged breach of the electronic communications act.

6am – C         James Comey Weighing Hollywood Offers for Memoir (Hollywood Reporter) — After President Trump’s Twitter attack, the former FBI director’s book, ‘A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,’ shot to the top of the Amazon and Barnes & Noble sales charts. Former FBI Director James Comey, who was famously fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, is considering selling the option to his hotly anticipated memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, which publishes April 17. Comey’s agents at DC-based Javelin, Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn, were in Los Angeles last week fielding pitches, according to a source with knowledge of the visit. A film or TV deal wasn’t something Comey even thought about until a flood of people in Hollywood called and expressed interest after the book was announced in early August. Comey is said to be unsure if he’ll sell the option in the end. Latimer and Urbahn met with agents, production companies and screenwriters to hear their pitches for the project, which involved both theatrical and television adaptations. Comey did not make the trip out last week, but if he decides to allow the project to advance, he’ll likely travel here sometime in the future. Pre-orders for the book, which had been strong, took a huge leap over the weekend after Donald Trump attacked Comey by name in a pair of Saturday tweets.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist – discussed yesterday’s shooting in Maryland’s Great Mills High School, the urgency for increased defense and security in schools, social media information gathering, and more

6am – E         Airline News:

• Delta sends dog to multiple wrong cities (FOX5NY) – Delta is the latest airline to send a pet to the wrong city. In this case, several cities. A family from Idaho was expecting their 8-week-old puppy from a breeder in Virginia. Instead, the dog was sent to Detroit, Los Angeles and then Salt Lake City before finally arriving in Boise. The dog’s new owner received a call on Saturday evening from someone claiming to be a Delta employee. Josh Schlaich says the caller said, “Hey, just wanted to let you know the dog’s flight has been delayed, and the dog is going to stay the night here. They said, ‘Here’s the number of a person who’s going to take care of it. His name is Chris. You need to call them if you want any more information. Thanks, bye.’” Photo. Schlaich says the number was disconnected and when he tried to call Delta he was hung up on several times. He finally got a response after contacting the airline through its Facebook page. He was told the dog would arrive on Sunday afternoon. The dog finally arrived Sunday evening but was safe and in good health.
• Airlines may not be the “germ incubator” you thought (Axios) — The chance of becoming infected with a common respiratory virus on an airplane may be smaller than originally thought — less than 3% unless you are sitting within one meter of an infected person, where your chances rise to 80%, according to a study published in PNAS Monday. What they did: The team — which included researchers from Emory, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Boeing (the company also helped fund the research) — went on 10 transcontinental U.S. flights. What they found: 38% of passengers never left their seats during flight, 38% left once, 13% left twice, and 11% left more than two times. Passengers seated on the aisle were 5x more likely to come into contact with other passengers than those seated at the window. So WINDOW SEAT is the best. The 11 closest people to the infected are most likely to get sick.

6am – F         Ann Coulter: Leftists Are Creating A ‘Hilarious And Ferocious Generation Of Right-Wingers’ (Daily Caller) — Conservative commentator Ann Coulter had an interesting take on young people when she appeared on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday. Coulter told Tucker that leftists are “creating, without realizing it, this really hilarious and ferocious generation of right-wingers.” “Has there ever been a more obedient little cadre of robots than college students?” The Daily Caller co-founder asked. “Is anyone brave? Is anybody giving the finger to the man and speaking the truth? Where are those people? What happened?” Well, the good news is, I’m following a lot of them on Twitter,” Coulter replied. “I get the impression that we are creating, I mean, the left is creating without realizing it, this really hilarious and ferocious generation of right-wingers, these college students, they’re listening to white privilege all day, every moment of every day, white heterosexual men are emerging from college barking at the moon right-wingers.” “They’re fun to follow on Twitter,” Coulter added

7am – A         INTERVIEW – MD DELEGATE DEBORAH “DEB” REY (St. Mary’s County) – discussed yesterday’s school shooting in Maryland’s Great Mills High School, the actions that the state legislature are taking to address school safety, and whether or not the state legislature is planning on pursing gun control                                 

• Statement by St. Mary’s County Delegation about this morning’s school shooting at Great Mills High School Following the horrific shooting incident at Great Mills High School, the St. Mary’s County Delegates ask for prayers for the injured, their families and the community. The Delegation remains committed to listen to the needs of the school system and local law enforcement to see what assistance the State can offer. “Our hearts go out to those injured and their families, and to the Great Mills community. We have been told by authorities the situation has been contained and students have been safely bused to Leonardtown High School. I send my deepest gratitude to the St. Mary’s Sheriff for the quick response and action.” said Delegate Deb Rey. At this time, latest reports indicate that 2 students have been taken to the hospital and the shooter, also a student, has been pronounced dead.

7am – B         Hillary Clinton on Ivanka Trump presidency: America doesn’t want any more “inexperienced Trumps in the White House” (Washington Examiner) — Hillary Clinton predicted last week that President Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, would never become the first female president, and warned that “we don’t want any more inexperienced Trumps in the White House.” When asked if Ivanka would make good on her hopes to be president one day, Clinton said “that’s not going to happen.” When she was reminded that Clinton also didn’t think Donald Trump could win the White House, Clinton said Americans have seen enough of Trump to vote against his daughter, should she run. “I think the American people have seen for themselves what happens with a reality TV candidate wins,” Clinton said. “And I really believe there’s an enormous amount of pent-up energy to take our country back away from the Trump administration.” Clinton said she believes Democrats will win back the majority in the House of Representatives during the midterms, which she says will “begin the process of righting the ship of state.”

7am – C         Is your spin class too young, too thin and too white? (Washington Post) — After a few committed months of hot yoga at a studio in New York, Christina Rice had found her niche. So when the studio announced that it was offering teacher training, she signed right up. It was only when she arrived with her mat that she noticed something striking. There were 54 other women and men in the 10-week course, and not one of them looked like her. She was the lone African American in the class. “I did bond with some of the other students,” says Rice. “But I did feel very isolated at times. There were no teachers of color. I didn’t have another woman who looked like me, who understood my struggles, my insecurities.” Boutique workout studios — specialized, exercise-specific gyms — are exploding in gentrifying urban areas. They include not only hot yoga but also CrossFit, which is everywhere; Barry’s Bootcamp (in Los Angeles, Nashville and Washington, along with other major cities); SoulCycle (nearly 20 markets); or Orangetheory (hundreds of studios nationwide).

7am – D         Austin bomber kills himself with explosive device (CNN) — A suspect in a wave of bombing attacks in Austin killed himself inside his car with an explosive device early Wednesday as authorities closed in, police said. Since the bombings started on March 2, investigators frantically searched for clues, calling the attacks the work of a”serial bomber” who increasingly changed tactics. The bombings killed two people and left the Texas capital terrorized with fear for 19 days. Latest developments: In the past 36 hours, law enforcement received information directing them to a person of interest, who ultimately became a suspect. Surveillance teams tracked the suspect’s vehicle to a hotel in Round Rock, north of Austin. As police waited on tactical units, the vehicle left the hotel. SWAT approached the vehicle and the suspect detonated a bomb, killing himself and injuring a SWAT member. A SWAT officer fired his weapon at the suspect after an officer was knocked down by the blast. It’s unclear whether the officer shot the suspect. The suspect is a 24-year-old white man, and authorities don’t know whether he acted alone or what his motive was. He is responsible for all the incidents in Austin, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. “This is the culmination of three very long weeks in our community,” Manley said. He urged residents to be vigilant, saying they don’t know where the bomber has been for the past 24 hours and if he sent additional packages. “Austin bombing suspect is dead. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned!,” President Donald Trump tweeted.

7am – E         Facebook News:

• Facebook executives may appear on Capitol Hill as early as Wednesday to face questions on alleged exploitation of user data
• FTC launches investigation into Facebook use of personal data: report
• Zuckerberg dumped a boatload of Facebook shares before stock nosedive

8am – A         INTERVIEW – BYRON YORK – chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner – discussed the possibility of President Trump deciding to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, the future of the Mueller Investigation, the hiring of Joe diGenova to the Trump legal team, and the upcoming release of former FBI director James Comey’s book

• Byron York: If Mueller didn’t charge Flynn and Manafort with collusion, then who was colluding? (Washington Examiner) — Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller is authorized to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” The popular word for that is collusion, and it remains at the heart of both the Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigations. (Majority Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee recently announced they were unable to find evidence proving collusion.) While much about the Mueller investigation remains unknown, we do know the indictments he has filed and the pleas he has reached with various figures in the case. There are some, including charges against Russia’s Internet Research Agency, several individual Russians, and two minor figures, that target either people on the Russian side of the equation or those for whom there are no suspicions of collusion. But Mueller has charged three people who were in the Trump campaign inner circle — former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and former deputy campaign chairman Richard Gates, all with ties to Russia and all of whom might be expected to be part of a collusion scheme, had one existed. Mueller has also charged one peripheral hanger-on, George Papadopoulos, who might conceivably have been part of a collusion scenario.
• Byron York: Comey book rollout coincides with IG report, new questions about his actions (Washington Examiner) — Fired FBI Director James Comey’s new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” will hit stores on April 17. Comey and his publishers have a big rollout planned, beginning with a sit-down, prime-time exclusive interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on April 15. Comey will also appear with Stephen Colbert on CBS’s “The Late Show,” join “The View,” and record an hour-long interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick before a live audience on April 18 (ticket prices $57 to $97.) On Friday, Axios reported that Comey plans to “come out hot” on his book tour. “He has heard a lot of lies and misstatements about the FBI that he intends to correct,” Axios’ Mike Allen wrote. (Allen will interview Comey at the Washington, D.C., stop on Comey’s tour; ticket price not yet announced.) But while Comey might indeed “come out hot” on the tour, it is also possible that things might get hot for him on Capitol Hill with the expected release, in roughly mid-April, of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. At various times in the Clinton affair, Comey’s judgment angered Republicans, Democrats, and people generally concerned about upholding standards of law enforcement. Some Republicans expect the Horowitz report to be damaging to the Justice Department, the FBI, and to Comey himself.

8am – B         Parkland News:

Two students arrested at Stoneman Douglas on weapons charges; deputy suspended for sleeping (Sun Sentinel) — Two students were arrested Tuesday for bringing knives to the Parkland school where 17 were killed by a gunman on Feb. 14 and a third is being mentally evaluated for making online threats. Compounding the anxiety and tension emanating from the campus, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schooldeputy was suspended for sleeping on the job after being caught by a student on Monday evening, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The student notified a sergeant patrolling the school that Deputy Moises Carotti was asleep in his patrol car, said Veda Coleman-Wright, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. The sergeant knocked on Carotti’s window to wake him up, she said. Carotti was suspended with pay while an internal affairs investigation is launched. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he was disheartened to learn of the allegations against Carotti. “That a deputy was sleeping is incredibly disappointing,” he said. “As you know, I can’t comment on an ongoing internal affairs investigation, but once the findings are in I will make the appropriate decisions regarding the way we are going to handle it and the level of discipline.”

8am – C         Being a Mom Equivalent to 2.5 Full-Time Jobs (Breitbart) — In news that will surprise no mom anywhere, a study by Welch’s has shown that motherhood is the equivalent of not one, not two, but two and a half full-time jobs. Mother’s Day is still two months away, but you might want to start preparing now. According to research by the Welch’s company, the moms in your life are putting in even more time than you might suspect. A survey of 2,000 mothers across the nation reveals a work week that starts at an average of 6:23 AM every day and does not end until approximately 8:31 PM. Of course, most salaried employees manage a day or two off in the midst of the grind — moms, however, do not. That seven-day total comes out to an average 98 hours per week, or the rough equivalent of two and a half careers worth of labor. Furthermore, the average mother finds a mere hour and seven minutes to herself each day — little more than a single lunch break. Welch’s Health and Nutrition Lead Casey Lewis said, “The results of the survey highlight just how demanding the role of mom can be and the non-stop barrage of tasks it consists of,” and the moms agreed. An average of four in 10 expressed the feeling that their lives were “a never-ending series of tasks.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – RACHEL WEINER – Reporter, Washington Post — covering the MD high school shooting – discussed the latest news on the school shooting in Maryland’s Great Mills High School, Maryland Governor Hogan’s proposed school security package, and more

8am – E         GOP dinner takes in record $32M ahead of 2018 midterms (UPI) — The National Republican Congressional Committee raised more than $32 million at its annual March dinner, the organization said Tuesday. President Donald Trump spoke at the dinner and told the audience he was the reason for the lucrative event, which broke the record set last year. “Last year was your record and I was here too,” Trump said. “And the year before that, you didn’t do so well and I wasn’t here. You went from $18 million — which is good, not great — to $30 million last year.” The haul continued what has been a lucrative fundraising season for the NRCC, which has raised $95 million during the 2018 cycle ahead of this year’s midterm elections. “This year, in this election, we are fighting to win and we are going to win,” Trump said. “There is no reason why we shouldn’t win with what we’ve done over the last year.” Trump went on to tout his record, pointing out companies that have brought or kept jobs in the United States and improved unemployment numbers for blacks and Hispanics.