Stuart Varney, DC Deputy Mayor for Safety Kevin Donahue and Baltimore Councilman Carl Stokes joined WMAL on Thursday!

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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C Kirby: Transparency Czar’s Donations To Hillary ‘Not Relevant’ (Breitbart) — State Department Spokesperson Rear Admiral John Kirby (Ret.) stated that “transparency czar” Janice Jacobs’ donation to Hillary Clinton is “not relevant” on Wednesday’s “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel. Kirby said, [relevant remarks being around 3:30] “She’s absolutely the right choice, and Secretary Kerry has the utmost trust and confidence in her ability to do this job. I think it’s important to remember that she’s been a career diplomat for several decades, appointed under Republican and Democratic administrations. In fact, her most recent one was under President Bush in the late 2000s. So, I mean, this is a career diplomat, lots of experience. The secretary knows that she has the leadership ability to change and to enact reforms. And the other thing is, look, guys, it’s not prohibited for federal employees to contribute to political causes or campaigns. I don’t think we want to live in a democracy where you can’t do that. And she admitted herself that made this contribution after she had retired from federal service.” Kirby added that the donation wasn’t mentioned at Jacobs’ announcement because “it’s not relevant. There’s no prohibition against doing that kind of thing. She did it when she was retired. And, more importantly, she’s the right person for this job, because of the experience that she has, leading large organizations, and enacting reforms and change, and that’s what we want her to do here.”

State Department’s New Email Czar Is A Hillary Clinton Donor. (Daily Caller) — The career bureaucrat who the State Department tapped on Tuesday to improve transparency at the agency as it deals with the Hillary Clinton email scandal recently donated the maximum amount allowed under federal law to the Democrat’s presidential campaign. Janice Jacobs will work to improve the State Department’s processing of Freedom of Information Act requests and overhaul its record-keeping practices, the agency announced. But Federal Election Commission records show that she donated $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign on June 22.

5am – D         DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – KATIE PHANG – Fox News legal analyst, trial attorney, former prosecutor and Partner at Berger Singerman, based in Miami, FL – discussed Baltimore’s approval of a settlement for Freddie Gray’s family.

5am – E         DC Emergency Issues:

• D.C. fire truck transports baby to hospital

• Another delay in D.C. ambulance response to call for infant

6am – A/B/C APPLE Debuts New Products:

• New iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus: new gestures, 3D Touch, pricing
• Siri-activated Apple TV will sell in October, starts at $149

6am – D         Fairfax County school officials are looking for parent input on how to solve their budget crisis. RESTON, Va. (WUSA9) — One of the wealthiest school districts in the country is holding a public meeting Wednesday night to hear suggestions on how to fix its multi-million dollar budget crisis. Fairfax County Public Schools is looking to cut about $80 million from the 2016-2017 budget. They’ll explain the situation to the public during a meeting at South Lakes High School in Reston starting at 7 p.m. The causes of the shortfall, according to Superintendent of FCPS Karen Garza, include enrollment growth, health insurance costs, salary increases and retirement increases mandated by the state. “I think for a lot of people they’ll see how painful these decisions can be,” Garza said.

6am – E         Football Season Begins: Fox 5’s Tony Perkins Rants on Facebook About Redskins: “Man. I cannot believe how many times during the last couple of weeks I’ve been asked if I’ve returned to being a fan of the Washington Redskins, or if I’m still out. To be honest, MORE people have simply said to me that I made the right decision last year, when I bailed on the team, and many have said that they were now joining me. Deciding to no longer support the team was a tough decision, and it is still something I struggle with. I had been a Redskins fan since I was 10 years old….maybe even younger…

I’ll just say this: what has gone on the last two weeks in Redskins World seems to be more of the same, and it does not bode well for the team. RGIII is kept in a game that he’s getting KILLED in, for no sensible reason. Predictably, he is injured, perhaps seriously. Then he has a concussion. Then he doesn’t. “I just work here,” he says. He’s the starting quarterback. Then he isn’t. (And really, at this point, he shouldn’t be…if only for his own safety!) Then it looks like he’s going to be cut, but he’s not (Snyder influencing what should be the coaches’ decisions again?)… Sadly, I think the Washington Redskins are the most mis-managed, under-performing, hapless, and snake-bitten team in the NFL.”

7am – A/B/C Conservative revolt forces GOP to change Iran game plan. Washington (CNN) House Republican leaders are changing tactics on the Iran nuclear deal after blowback from conservatives. GOP leaders are grappling with opposition from conservatives who earlier Wednesday delayed the start of debate on a resolution that would block the nuclear accord. Conservatives are calling on the White House to hand over more details about the nuclear agreement. To get around the sudden obstacle, House leaders devised a plan intended to address conservative concerns by paving the way for a legal challenge over the implementation of the deal. The House will vote on a measure that says President Barack Obama violated the law by not turning over all the details of the historic agreement his administration reached with Iran.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Anchor, Varney and Company, Fox Business Network

• APPLE Debuts New Products
• Are we seeing the decline of the department store? Macy’s closing up to 40 more stores
• MARKETS: – “Winter is coming” – Chinese startups face market downturn. U.S. stocks end sharply lower on specter of Fed rate hike, oil slump

7am – E         Bands Get Outraged Over Music Used At Political Events:

• Band Survivor objects to use of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ at Kim Davis rally. WASHINGTON — In what’s becoming a familiar pattern, the band behind the song played at Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’ rally Tuesday says they didn’t give permission for the use of their song — and they’re not happy about it. Davis was released from jail on Tuesday after being held for five days for refusing to issue marriage licenses, citing her religious objection to same-sex marriage. Her emergence onstage at a rally in her honor was underscored by “Eye of the Tiger,” by the band Survivor. On the band’s official Facebook page, someone identifying themselves as “fs” — presumably “Eye of the Tiger” co-writer Frankie Sullivan — wrote, “NO! We did not grant Kim Davis any rights to use” the song.
• R.E.M. bashes Trump, Cruz for using ‘It’s the End of the World’ at rally. (CNN) Donald Trump has been blaring R.E.M. on the campaign trail, and the band doesn’t feel fine about it. The GOP presidential candidate took to the podium Wednesday on the steps of Capitol Hill to slam President Barack Obama’s proposed Iran nuclear deal. His walk-up music? R.E.M.’s 1987 hit “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Rival candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, whom Trump acknowledged having a political “romance” with, was the one who invited Trump to speak at the rally. R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe was livid after the use of his band’s song at the event. “Go f*ck yourselves, the lot of you — you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men,” Stipe said in an email to The Daily Beast. “Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW — KEVIN DONAHUE – DC Deputy Mayor for Public Safety – discussed the mayor’s plans to combat crime in DC.

• C. to Track Violent Gun Offenders in Bid to Curb Crime
• The District is facing an ambulance shortage crisis

8am – B         Entertainment News:

• Local man raises $30K for Kenny Loggins to sing in his living room. WASHINGTON — There’s a concert happening in the living room of a Fairfax County home and Erick Sanchez made it happen. Sanchez, a self-described “super fan,” raised more than $30,000 through Kickstarter to have singer Kenny Loggins play a gig at his home. Loggins and his band had their own Kickstarter to raise money for their album. Those who contributed the most money could have Loggins play a show in their living room.
• Ronda Rousey could be hitting the big screen in Patrick Swayze’s old role in “Road House” (USA Today) — Ronda Rousey is heading back to the big screen, and according to a Variety report, she will be doing so in a new re-imagining of the seminal 1989 Patrick Swayze action movie, Road House.From Variety: After passionately pursuing the project for some time, MGM has decided to move forward with a new take on 1980s action pic “Road House,” with Rousey expected to step into the role Patrick Swayze made famous.

• Caitlyn Jenner fears being sent to a men’s prison. Caitlyn Jenner is facing the reality that she could be sent to a men’s prison. (NY Post) — In February, the former Olympian — who was then known as Bruce — was involved in a car crash in Malibu that resulted in the death of a 69-year-old widow. “A tragedy like this you’ll never get over it, you just learn to live with it the best you possibly can,” Jenner, 65, revealed to Matt Lauer during a “Today” show interview that aired Wednesday. Jenner’s grief from the accident continues, but the former Olympian may be faced with up to a year in jail if investigators determine negligence was the cause. “[Going to jail] is the worst-case scenario … the men’s county jail,” said Jenner. “It is an enormous problem that they would put trans women in the men’s county jail, but those are things we are looking into.”

8am – C         Critter News:

• It wasn’t our imaginations. Researchers say there were more sharks than usual on the East Coast this year: (USA Today) — If it seems like there were more sharks than usual near the coast this spring, that’s because there were. A team of federal researchers, part of the longest-running coastal shark research program along the East Coast, captured and tagged more than 2,800 sharks — the most in 29 years of population monitoring before the summer season got underway. “We caught fish throughout the survey,” said Lisa Natanson, a scientist at the Narragansett Laboratory of NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center and leader of the coastal shark survey. “Sandbar sharks were all along the coast, while most of the dusky sharks were off North Carolina. We captured a bull shark for the first time since 2001 and recaptured 10 sharks previously tagged by our program and two sharks tagged by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.” No one is sure why the numbers were up. It could have been the fish were simply concentrated in the study area from Florida north to Delaware during the time the sampling occurred. That could have been driven by any number of factors ranging from water temperatures to availability of prey, said Shelley Dawicki, a spokeswoman for the science center.
• Insects at Starbucks: Russ Ptacek, WUSA9 ‏@RussPtacek: 10 hours ago: DC Health suspends Starbucks citing “insects, rodents and other pests on the premises” at 555 11th St NW. @wusa9

8am – D         INTERVIEW — CARL STOKES – BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL MAN

• Baltimore approves $6.4 million settlement for Freddie Gray’s family
• Baltimore readies for 2nd hearing in Freddie Gray case
• Catherine Pugh, Carl Stokes enter Baltimore mayor’s race. Two veteran Baltimore lawmakers — state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh and City Councilman Carl Stokes — say they will challenge Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in next spring’s Democratic primary.

8am – E         Carly’s Face:

• Trump insults Fiorina in Rolling Stone: ‘Look at that face!’ When the magazine’s cover story came out on Wednesday, the most-talked-about passage was a Trump comment about rival Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. According to writer Paul Solotaroff, he was sitting with Trump watching a newscast when a video clip zoomed in on Fiorina. “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” Trump said to Solotaroff. “Can you imagine that, the face of our next president.” Trump added, “I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?” Solotaroff continued his cover story (headlined “Taking Trump Seriously”) by saying: “And there, in a nutshell, is Trump’s blessing and his curse: He can’t seem to quit while he’s ahead. The instincts that carried him out to a lead and have kept him far above the captious field are the same ones that landed him in ugly stews with ex-wives, business partners, networks, supermodels and many, many other famous women.”

TOMORROW: Trevor Matich and Bret Baier