Tom Fitton, Tom Bevan and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday.

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Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW — COLORADO STATE SENATOR ELLEN ROBERTS (R-Durango)

• Colorado Mine Spill: Toxic Wastewater Leak Far Exceeds First Estimates
• EPA is unsure if a toxic spill from a mine into a Colorado river poses a health threat

5am – D/E     Megyn Kelly Responds: Trump who is the front-runner will not apologize and I certainly will not apologize for doing GOOD JOURNALISM.

6am – A/B/C Sanders: Make Election Day a holiday. (The Hill) — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to make election a day a holiday, suggesting that it could make it easier to vote. Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has introduced a proposal that would amend the U.S. code to include “Federal Election Day, the Tuesday following the first Monday in November in each even-numbered year,” according to the legislation. The Vermont senator said at a rally last week that the legislation would make sure everyone who wants to vote has the time to, and “would indicate a national commitment to create a vibrant democracy.” The legislation is part of a package of proposals that Sanders is offering aimed at voting and campaigns. He’s also introduced legislation that would automatically register 18-year olds to vote, and said last week that he intends to offer legislation that would allow public financing of campaigns.The proposals come as Democrats rallied around the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

6am – D         Parent fights to get her child into kindergarten in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. (Capital Gazette) – Before SAT preparatory classes, Advanced Placement courses and magnet programs, there’s kindergarten. To go to kindergarten, a child must be 5 years old by Sept. 1. One parent is fighting to get her child, born Oct. 6, 2010, admitted into kindergarten in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. If that fails, she will continue sending her to private school. School administrators follow state law in cases like this, official say. Depending on the year, anywhere between 100 to 120 students apply for early admission to kindergarten, said Patricia Saynuk, the early childhood development coordinator. “Once we grant early admission, we do not ever take it away,” she said. Shawna Doyle moved last year from New York, where the age requirements for kindergarten are different. Doyle’s children spent their first year at First Baptist School in Laurel until they could apply to Monarch Global Academy, the contract charter school. Both of Doyle’s daughters, Kori, 7, and Kaila, 4, were admitted. Then she remembered a possible snag: While First Baptist in Laurel has some flexibility, the public school system does not. At First Baptist, if a student has a birthday between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15 a decision is made based on an assessment and whether the parent thinks it’s a good fit. The school directed Doyle toward a test to see how prepared her daughter is for kindergarten. Doyle asked questions: How could she prepare her daughter for it? How long is the test? She said it was difficult to find information. Doyle believes her daughter belongs in kindergarten. So does her pre-kindergarten teacher, Doyle wrote in her appeal letter.

6am – E         Critter News:

• Panda pregnancy watch is on at Washington’s National Zoo. (Washington Post) –– The National Zoo’s adult female giant panda has entered a critical phase in her months-long reproductive cycle, the zoo said Monday, suggesting that the cycle may conclude in a few weeks. The zoo said it doesn’t know if Mei Xiang is pregnant, because female pandas exhibit signs of pregnancy even when they are not pregnant. But zoo experts have detected the rise in Mei Xiang’s hormone levels that marks the final part of her cycle. Her hormone levels should rise for the next few weeks, and then come down, at which point she will either deliver a cub or have had a false pregnancy, the zoo said. The giant panda was artificially inseminated twice — on April 26 and 27 — with semen collected from the zoo’s male giant panda, Tian Tian, and from a male giant panda at a research center in Wolong, China.
• Mysterious fungus killing snakes in at least 9 states. NEW HAVEN, Vt. (AP) — Hidden on hillsides in a remote part of western Vermont, a small number of venomous timber rattlesnakes slither among the rocks, but their isolation can’t protect them from a mysterious fungus spreading across the eastern half of the country that threatens to wipe them out. In less than a decade, the fungus has been identified in at least nine Eastern states, and although it affects a number of species, it’s especially threatening to rattlesnakes that live in small, isolated populations with little genetic diversity, such as those found in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.
• Hearing scheduled in lawsuit over Annapolis ‘snake house.’ Next month, a judge will consider a request to throw out a $2 million lawsuit claiming a local real estate agent knowingly sold a home on the Broadneck Peninsula infested with black rat snakes. The hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10 at 1:30 p.m. in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. A judge has not yet been assigned. The lawsuit over the “snake house,” as it was called by one former tenant, Rich Booker, has attracted national attention since it was first reported in The Sunday Capital in May.
• West Nile Virus Found In Bowie Mosquitoes. (Patch) — State health officials say this is the first confirmed case of the virus this summer; Bowie officials have sprayed the area. Mosquitos collected in Bowie last week carried the West Nile virus, which attacks the nervous system, officials said. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed the virus on Aug. 5 in mosquitos in Bowie, the city says. Spraying to control mosquitoes happened the following night. West Nile Virus is transmitted by mosquito bits and affects the nervous system.
• Zimbabwe has lifted its ban on trophy hunting—just a week after it was introduced. Zimbabwe’s temporary ban on trophy hunting lasted for just over a week. South Africa’s News24 reported yesterday that the ban, introduced after last month’s scandal over the killing of Cecil the lion, has been lifted. According to the report, a statement from the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association was leaked during the weekend, announcing the lifting of the ban.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – TOM BEVAN – EXECUTIVE EDITOR, REAL CLEAR POLITICS

• Trump still leading polls despite Megyn Kelly feud. (NY Post/August 11) – Three online polls and a telephone survey put Trump at the top of the Republican field after Thursday’s GOP presidential debate and his ensuing offensive against Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly. Trump saw his popularity soar in a new Morning Consult survey, gaining 7 percentage points since a poll taken last week.
• Rick Perry stops paying all of his staff as fundraising dries up. (Washington Post) — Former Texas governor Rick Perry’s presidential campaign is no longer paying its staff because fundraising has dried up, while his cash-flush allied super PAC is preparing to expand its political operation to compensate for the campaign’s shortcomings, campaign and super PAC officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday.

7am – B         Entertainment News:

• Prince Compares Record Contracts To Slavery In Rare Meeting With Media. Prince Calls Record Contracts ‘Slavery’ And Teams Up With Jay Z For Next Release. Music icon Prince is worried about the future of the music business for artists, and his top priority can be summed up in one word: Freedom. Record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word – slavery,” Prince told a group of 10 journalists Saturday night, during a meet and greet at his Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis. “I would tell any young artist … don’t sign.”
• Howard Stern says Jimmy Kimmel officiated Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux’s wedding. (Associated Press) — Howard Stern has revealed details about the secret wedding between Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, including that Jimmy Kimmel officiated. Stern was a guest at the Los Angeles ceremony last Wednesday that Aniston and Theroux disguised as a birthday bash for Theroux. Stern said on his radio show Monday that he knew beforehand that it was a wedding because the couple asked him to give a speech. But Stern said the affair was extremely secretive and that guests had to hand over their phones. He said Kimmel did “a beautiful job” officiating, and that Sia performed. Other guests, he said, included Ellen DeGeneres, Whitney Cummings and Orlando Bloom. The marriage is the second for 46-year-old Aniston, who divorced from Brad Pitt in 2005, and the first for 44-year-old Theroux.
• A $5 million Wedding Present? Jennifer Aniston Signs Big New Endorsement Deal. Twice the bliss – newlywed Jennifer Aniston signed a deal to promote Emirates Airlines just before tying the knot with longtime boyfriend Justin Theroux on Wednesday. The actress, 46, will be working with the airline on a new campaign, a rep from Emirates’ U.S. PR agency, MSLGROUP told PEOPLE in a statement. “We can confirm that we are working with Ms. Jennifer Aniston on a global digital and television campaign,” said Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ Divisional SVP for Corporate Communications, Marketing & Brand. “More information about the campaign will be unveiled in due course.” The deal is reported to be worth a cool $5 million, according to the New York Post.

7am – C         Pipes with trace of cannabis found on Shakespeare’s estate. WASHINGTON — The 16th-century bard who once wrote a trippy comedy about a group of lovers and actors manipulated by wood faeries that delighted in giving one man a donkey head may have been indulging in the wacky weed when he wrote it. While there is no direct evidence showing that William Shakespeare, arguably the most famous playwright in history, was smoking marijuana when he penned A Midsummer Night’s Dream, scientists examining items dug from his property at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, found a number of tobacco pipes of the day buried there with various plant residues — including cannabis. The pipes containing traces of hemp were found in his garden. Others, with coca leaves, or cocaine, were found on other parts of the property and not in the garden. Shakespeare scholars are divided on the idea that the Elizabethan poet’s best works, which include Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, might have been inspired by mind and mood altering drugs.

7am – D         Our Marriage Is Stronger Because My Husband Isn’t My Best Friend. Rethinking the adage of “I married my best friend” (VerilyMag) — Several years ago I attended my best friend’s wedding. She and her husband shared their first dance to the tune of “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Calliat. You know, the one that goes, “Lucky I’m in love with my best friend . . .” We hear that sentiment all the time—that marrying your best friend is the ultimate goal. But I find the ideal of my husband being my best friend a romantic notion that sells the love between spouses short. I did not marry my best friend. My best friend is married, has two children, and is currently visiting Poland with her family. My husband, Will, on the other hand, is the best man I know, the love of my life, and the father of our two daughters. We support each other, discuss the mundane and the extraordinary, play games, work out, have fun, enjoy each other’s company, share everything, and respect each other. But at the end of the day, he is still not my best friend; he is much more. There is an important distinction between the role of best friend and the role of spouse, and I would be minimizing my husband’s role in my life if I called him anything else. I believe that a spouse and a best friend are analogous but not the same. It may sound nitpicky, but “best friend” can never do justice to the far more intimate calling of the marital relationship.

7am – E         Space News:

• Space salad: 1 small bite for man, 1 giant leaf for mankind. WASHINGTON (AP) — These are the salad days of scientific research on the International Space Station. On Monday, for the first time astronauts munched on red romaine lettuce that they grew in space. After clicking their lettuce leaves like wine glasses, three astronauts tasted them with a bit of Italian balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. Astronaut Kjell Lindgren pronounced it awesome, while Scott Kelly compared the taste to arugula. They talked about how the veggies added color to life in space. If astronauts are to go farther in space, they will need to grow their own food and this was an experiment to test that. Astronauts grew space station lettuce last year but had to ship it back to Earth for testing and didn’t get to taste it.
• Buzz Aldrin Expensed $33.31 for Trip to Moon. (Washington Post) — The mileage was more affordable back then. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, released a unique historical nugget through his Twitter account last week: the expense report for his trip to the lunar surface.    #TBT My mission director @Buzzs_xtina’s favorite piece of my memorabilia. My travel voucher to the moon. #Apollo11 pic.twitter.com/c89UyOfvgY    — Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) July 30, 2015 The government covered the space miles, obviously. But it cost the New Jersey-bred Aldrin $33.31 to get from Houston to Cape Kennedy in 1969 – and the government reimbursed him. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $216.59 in 2015 U.S. dollars.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – President of Judicial Watch

• HILLARY’S EMAILS:
  • State Dept. blames classified information for Hillary Clinton email delays
  • LAST WEEK: FBI investigation of Hillary’s emails is ‘criminal probe’
  • Clinton certifies she has turned over work-related emails.
  • Cheryl Mills To Destroy Emails About Boss Hillary Clinton.
• JUDICIAL WATCH SUIT ABOUT OBAMACARE:
  • Congress fraudulently registered as a small business, watchdog says. Judicial Watch Appeals to Halt D.C. Monies being Spent on Congress’ Participation on the D.C. Small Business Health Benefit Exchange

8am – B/C     NEW TRUMP COMMENTS:

• ON FOX & FRIENDS THIS MORNING: TRUMP calls for TAKING THE OIL IN IRAQ and “KNOCK THE HELL” out of ISIS
• ON FOX & FRIENDS THIS MORNING, TRUMP reiterated that he’s “keeping the door” open to a third party bid

8am – D         INTERVIEW: LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry KUDLOW Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm

• Trump still leading polls despite Megyn Kelly feud.
• Kudlow says he has a copy of Trump’s economic plan
• China devalues yuan in shocking move. The People’s Bank of China allowed the yuan to depreciate by nearly 2% against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, the result of a surprise policy change that roiled international currency markets. The sudden devaluation is the largest in two decades, and comes amid slower economic growth and increased stock market volatility in China.

8am – E         Congress News:

• White House staffer charged with domestic violence for shooting at Capitol Police boyfriend. White House spokesman told The Hill the staffer, Barvetta Singletary, has been placed on temporary unpaid leave and is banned from White House grounds “until we have more information.” olice say Singletary texted her boyfriend to meet at her home in suburban Maryland for sex. Afterward, she confronted him about another woman he was dating. The two entered her car to discuss it, and an argument ensued when Singletary asked to see her boyfriend’s cellphones. Singletary allegedly grabbed his phones and a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol. After the boyfriend refused to give Singletary the passwords on his phones, she pointed the gun at him and said, “You taught me how to use this. Don’t think I won’t use it,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC 4. Singletary pointed the gun in his direction and fired one round, police said. The boyfriend fled the home and called 911. Singletary has served as special assistant to the president and House legislative affairs liaison since 2014.
• ‘Little House on the Prairie’ star running for Congress: Washington (CNN) Actress Melissa Gilbert, who rose to fame playing Laura Ingalls Wilder on “Little House on the Prairie,” announced Monday she is running for Congress. Gilbert, a Democrat, is looking to unseat freshman Republican Rep. Mike Bishop of Michigan’s 8th congressional district. “Please join me in my fight for working families,” Gilbert tweeted Monday. “I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy. I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done,” Gilbert writes on her campaign website. Bishop succeeded Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who had retired at the end of his term. Bishop defeated his Democratic opponent with 54% of the vote. Bishop’s campaign spokesman Stu Sandler was quick to point out that Gilbert owes more than $300,000 in back taxes to the IRS. “Melissa Gilbert can afford to have a stylist and a Louis Vuitton collar for her dog, but cannot pay her taxes. Her Hollywood values are out of whack with the district,” Sandler said in a statement to CNN.

TOMORROW: KT McFarland