Kevin McCarthy , Alex Pappas, Lee Smith, and Stephen Moore joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C How an Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations (NY Times) Are you comfortable with law enforcement having access to your DNA? On Halloween night in 1996, a man in a skeleton mask knocked on the door of a house in Martinez, Calif., handcuffed the woman who greeted him and raped her. Two weeks later, he called the dental office where she worked. Investigators tried to track him down through phone records, but got nowhere. They obtained traces of his semen, but there was no match for his DNA in any criminal database. Last month — two decades after the crime — the Sacramento district attorney’s office tried something new to finally crack the case of this serial rapist, who had attacked at least 10 women in their homes. Investigators converted the assailant’s DNA to the kind of profile that family history websites such as 23andMe are built on, and uploaded it to GEDmatch.com, a free site open to all and beloved by genealogical researchers seeking to find biological relatives or to construct elaborate family trees. Within five minutes of reviewing the results, the investigators had located a close relative among the million or so profiles in the database. Within two hours, they had a suspect, who was soon arrested: Roy Charles Waller, a safety specialist at the University of California, Berkeley.

5am – D Stormy Daniels defamation suit against Trump tossed on 1st Amendment grounds (Fox News) A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday threw out adult-film actress Stormy Daniel’s defamation lawsuit against President Trump on free-speech grounds. “The court agrees with Mr. Trump’s argument because the tweet in question constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the U.S.,” U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said in a ruling Monday, as Bloomberg reported. “The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement.” “The ruling also states that the President is entitled to an award of his attorneys’ fees against Stormy Daniels,” Trump attorney Charles Harder said in a statement to Fox News. “No amount of spin or commentary by Stormy Daniels or her lawyer, Mr. (Michael) Avenatti, can truthfully characterize today’s ruling in any way other than total victory for President Trump and total defeat for Stormy Daniels.  The amount of the award for President Trump’s attorneys’ fees will be determined at a later date.”

5am – E Artist surprised his fantasy painting of Trump is hanging in the White House (NBC News) Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon walk into a bar…That’s not the beginning of a bad joke, but rather the subject of a recent painting by artist Andy Thomas called “The Republican Club” that’s hanging in the White House. The image created a stir on social media after it was spotted on a wall in the White House during a “60 Minutes” interview with Trump that aired Sunday night. In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Thomas said he was shocked to see his work in the White House.

6am – A/B/C Bill Maher: Let’s Face It, Democrats Are Losing Because Of Political Correctness (Hot Air) Is political correctness killing the dems? HBO host Bill Maher said mainstream Democrats have to denounce the “insane” political correctness taking over their party if they want to win the midterm elections in November. In Friday’s episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the liberal comedian opened his panel discussion by arguing that a blue wave in November is unlikely unless Democrats move away from cultural issues that make them look “weak.”

6am – D/E/F Warren’s DNA test mocked by GOP; Trump offers charity donation only ‘if I can test her personally’ (Fox News) Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s heavily promoted DNA test showing she likely has some Native-American ancestry ended up handing more fodder to Republican critics, who pointed out the test results indicate she could actually have less Native-American heritage than the average European American. Meanwhile, President Trump on Monday afternoon added new conditions to his earlier offer to donate $1 million to a charity of her choice if she took a DNA test as part of a debate challenge. “I’ll only do it if I can test her personally,” the president told reporters while touring Hurricane Michael damage along the Gulf Coast. “That will not be something I will enjoy doing either.” Warren, D-Mass., took the rare step Monday of sharing DNA test results examining her long-challenged Native-American bloodline.  According to the analysis, as first reported by The Boston Globe, “the vast majority” of Warren’s family tree is European and there is “strong evidence” she has Native-American ancestry “in the range of 6-10 generations ago.” As reported by the Globe, this means she could be between 1/64 and 1/1,024 Native American (though the newspaper initially published an erroneous figure and had to correct it).

7am – A INTERVIEW – Kevin McCarthy – Entertainment Report at Fox 5 DC

Topic: First Man

• The visceral historical drama got grounded in its domestic debutwith $16 million, despite positive reviews and the combined pedigree of Oscar-winning La La Land director Damien Chazelle, Gosling and Claire Foy of The Crown

7am – B/C  Protest News:

• Portland‘s mayor proposed Monday restrictions on protests from groups that have a history of violence. His comments came after violent clashes on Saturday during a demonstration that included the antifa and far-right groups Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys. 

 7am-D INTERVIEW – Alex Pappas – Politics Reporter Fox News

Topic: Election News

• Dems worry of 2016-style stumbles, as GOP sees chance of holding off ‘wave (Fox News) Since Donald Trump was elected president, Democrats have been counting on an energized liberal base to send a big, blue wave to wipe out Republican congressional majorities this November. But less than a month away from the midterms, some Democrats are concerned their party may be more confident than they should be about retaking control of one or both chambers – amid a tightening electoral map.

 7am – E Senate intelligence staffer who dated reporter pleads guilty to lying to FBI about leaks (Fox News) A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee has pleaded guilty to one count of giving a false statement to FBI agents looking into leaks of national security information to several reporters, including one at the New York Times he dated, the Justice Department announced Monday. James A. Wolfe, 58, was in charge of maintaining all classified information coming from the executive branch to the Senate panel. He served as the panel’s security director for 29 years. “Did you make a false statement to the FBI?” D.C. district court judge Ketanji B. Jackson asked Wolfe in court on Monday. Wolfe had been scheduled to appear for a routine status hearing, before prosecutors announced that “substantial” negotiations had produced a guilty plea. “I did, your honor,” Wolfe responded. Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters, according to a statement of offense released Monday as part of his guilty plea. He also allegedly lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters. His guilty plea on Monday to one count means that the other two counts against him will be dismissed.

8am – A INTERVIEW – Lee Smith – senior fellow at the Hudson Institute

Topic: Saudi News

• Saudi government considering plan to admit that writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed in consulate (NBC News) Saudi Arabia’s government is discussing a plan to admit that missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, three people with knowledge of the situation tell NBC News.

 8am – B Top 3% of America’s taxpayers paid majority of income taxes in 2016 (Daily Mail) Americans who earned in the top 1 per cent paid more individual income tax than the bottom 90 per cent combined in 2016, according to new figures released by the Internal Revenue Service. That year, the United States government collected a total of $1.44trillion from 140.9 million income taxpayers, according to the IRS. These filers reported a total of $10.2trillion in adjusted gross income. The statistics show that the top 50 per cent of all taxpayers paid 97 per cent of total individual income taxes. That means that the bottom 50 per cent paid 3 per cent.

8am – C Millennials Kill Again. The Latest Victim? American Cheese (Bloomberg) American cheese will never die. It has too many preservatives. But it’s melting away. One by one, America’s food outlets are abandoning the century-old American staple. In many cases, they’re replacing it with fancier cheeses. Wendy’s is offering asiago. A&W’s Canada locations switched to real cheddar. McDonald’s is selling the Big Mac’s soft, orange square of American cheese with a version that doesn’t contain artificial preservatives. Cracker Barrel ditched its old-fashioned grilled cheese. So did Panera Bread, replacing American with a four-cheese combo of fontina, cheddar, monteau and smoked gouda. The result: higher sales. American cheese is “an ingredient we’re looking to less and less in our pantry,” said Sara Burnett, the chain’s director of wellness and food policy.

8am – D INTERVIEW – Stephen Moore – Economist at The Heritage Foundation

Topic: Thousands line up for zero-down-payment, subprime mortgage

• Borrowers can have low credit scores, but have to go through an education session about the program and submit all necessary documents, from income statements to phone bills.
• They must go through counseling to understand their monthly budget and ensure they can afford the mortgage payment.
• The loans are 15- or 30-year fixed with interest rates below market, about 4.5 percent.

8am – E Trump is already swimming in cash for his 2020 reelection campaign (CNN) President Donald Trump has raised more than $100 million for a re-election battle that is more than two years away, giving him a massive financial advantage over a crowded field of potential Democratic contenders jockeying to challenge him in 2020. The President raised more than $18 million during the July-to-September fundraising quarter through his campaign committee and the joint fundraising operations he maintains with the Republican National Committee, according to his campaign and filings Monday night with Federal Election Commission. That haul means his re-election effort’s war chest now exceeds $106 million.