Morgan Wright, Ed Henry, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, DC Councilmember Jack Evans and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday morning.

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INTERVIEW LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm – discussed the optics of Obama not going to Paris.

INTERVIEW — DC COUNCILMEMBER JACK EVANS, represents Ward 2 – shared his thoughts on the fatal metro incident.

INTERVIEW – REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN – D-MD, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee

INTERVIEW — ED HENRY – senior White House correspondent for Fox News Channel

INTERVIEW – MORGAN WRIGHT – cybersecurity expert, former executive at Cisco & Alcatel-Lucent and former senior advisor for the US Department of State Antiterrorism Assistance Program / www.morganwright.us

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

5am – A         Virginia revenues up in December on income-tax gains. Jan 12 (Reuters) – Virginia's revenues jumped 13.1 percent in December from the same month a year earlier as the commonwealth's leading revenue source, income taxes, made solid gains, the governor's office reported on Monday. "This trend is welcome news and indicative that the Virginia economy is gradually improving," said Governor Terry McAuliffe in a statement. "Making Virginia less dependent on the federal government is a long-term goal that must guide our thinking and our endeavors if we are to continue to make economic progress in the future." Collection of payroll withholding taxes rose 15.1 percent in December from December 2013, although that was partly due to an extra deposit day, according to the governor's office. Nonwithholding rose 39.5 percent from quarterly tax payments. Nonwithholding could also affect this month's collections, as the final deadline for payments is Jan. 15. At the same time, corporate income tax collections were up 22.9 percent. As of the end of December, revenue for the fiscal year was ahead of last fiscal year by 6.8 percent, much stronger than the 3.1 percent annual growth in the state's budget forecasts, a report from Finance Secretary Ric Brown showed. Virginia's fiscal year starts July 1, and so December marks its halfway point.

McAuliffe unveils "Equal Opportunity" legislative agenda. (Richmond Times-Dispatch) — Facing a Republican-controlled legislature likely to be hostile to his ideas on health care, abortion access, gay rights and gun control, Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday nevertheless assured his liberal base that he would still promote their interests. “They’re not partisan, they’re not political,” McAuliffe told a room full of advocates at a news conference in Richmond announcing his “Equal Opportunity” legislative agenda. “They’re common-sense things that move the commonwealth forward.” Part of that agenda will include an avalanche of legislation — 40 governor’s bills and 125 agency bills — to be filed during the 2015 session of the Virginia General Assembly, which convenes Wednesday.

5am – D         DC Metro Update: NTSB investigating after smoke at Washington Metro station kills 1, injures 84. (Fox News) – The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating what caused one of Washington's busiest subway stations to fill with smoke Monday afternoon, resulting in the death of 1 person and injuries to 84 others. Officials said the woman who died and many of the injured were riders aboard a Virginia-bound Yellow Line train that had just departed the L'Enfant Plaza station shortly before 3:30 p.m. local time when it suddenly came to a halt 800 yards beyond the platform and began to fill with smoke. At a news conference late Monday night, NTSB officials said a so-called "electrical arcing event" occurred approximately 1,100 feet in front of the train. The term refers to what happens when water hits an electrified third rail and sometimes generates smoke. Officials added that there was between half an inch and an inch of water on the ground next to the third rail, but it was not clear why the train came to a sudden stop.  -The smoke did not appear to have been the result of a fire. Power to the third rail was shut down and riders were forced to self-evacuate. Passengers told the Washington Post that as much as an hour went by before firefighters were able to lead them out of the cars. Witnesses told the paper that some riders began to choke as the smoke filled the cars, while others lost consciousness.  DC Interim Fire Chief Eugene Jones told the Post that firefighters did not immediately enter the tunnel to help the riders because they want to ensure that power to the third rail had been shut off. He also took issue with passengers' claims, saying that the delay was "nothing like" the length of time described.  NTSB officials said the investigation would continue Tuesday morning. Rail service into the city was expected to be affected.

5am – E         Dems pitch controversial plan to tax Wall Street, to pay for new middle-class credit.  Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., unveiled the tax plan on Monday at the Center for American Progress.  His plan would give a tax credit of roughly $2,000 per year to middle-class families, reportedly defined as couples making under $200,000. According to The Washington Post, the windfall would add up to roughly $1.2 trillion over the next decade.  However, to pay for the plan, Van Hollen wants to charge a fee on financial transactions, and curtail tax breaks for other top earners, effectively transferring wealth from Wall Street and beyond to everyone else.

6am – A/B/C The White House Admits Fault in Not Attending Paris Unity Rally. (NBC News) — Amid criticism, the White House admitted fault by not sending President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden or other top-ranking official to the unity rally in Paris on Sunday where more than 40 heads of state marched through Paris. "It is fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday. The only noted American official in attendance was the U.S ambassador to France. Earnest said the rally was conceived on Friday evening and did not allow enough time to pull off the security feat required for President Barack Obama to march amid the public, which attracted more than three-and-a-half million people. Earnest said it posed "significant security challenges." President Barack Obama has received significant fallout for not attending the rally or sending some of his top lieutenants. Critics argued that the President owed it to France, a U.S. ally, to show his solidarity and to send a message to violent extremists that the U.S. will not stand down.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – MORGAN WRIGHT – cybersecurity expert, former executive at Cisco & Alcatel-Lucent and former senior advisor for the US Department of State Antiterrorism Assistance Program / www.morganwright.us

• Hack disrupts CENTCOM Twitter and YouTube accounts
• ISIS Hacks CENTCOM Twitter Feed as Obama Talks Cybersecurity
• Obama proposes new cybersecurity measures in light of recent data breaches and corporate hacks

6am – E         'Taken 3' takes top slot at U.S. box office. The crime thriller starring Liam Neeson in his third stint as retired spy Bryan Mills, who this time must clear his name of a ruthless murder, earned a hefty $39.2 million in its debut weekend, said box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Liam Neeson Rails Against Guns In The US While Promoting Latest Gun-Heavy Movie. (Daily Caller) — Liam Neeson has made over $30 million shooting guns at bad guys in the “Taken” movie trilogy, but is now decrying the high number of “privately owned” firearms in the U.S. “There’s too many [expletive] guns out there,” Neeson told Gulf News, a Dubai-based English language newspaper, ahead of the premier of “Taken 3.” Neeson plays a retired gun-wielding CIA operative named Bryan Mills in the trilogy. He reportedly earned $1 million for his role in “Taken” in 2008, $10 million for “Taken 2″ and $20 million for his role in the final installment of the series. “Especially in America. I think the population is like, 320 million? There’s over 300 million guns. Privately owned, in America. I think it’s a [expletive] disgrace,” Neeson told Gulf News. “Every week now we’re picking up a newspaper and seeing, ‘Yet another few kids have been killed in schools.’”

7am – A  INTERVIEW — ED HENRY – senior White House correspondent for Fox News Channel

• Ed Henry Presses Earnest: What Was the President Doing on Sunday?
• Fox’s Ed Henry Confronts Earnest: Why Didn’t You Send Someone to Paris?

7am – B   The Celebrity Apprentice recap: 'A Family Affair.' Trump splits up the teams to set up an epic fundraising duel as two more people are fired. (The Wrap) —  A fitness challenge and wedding dress fundraiser sends a pair home on the NBC reality competition series. The third installment of back-to-back episodes on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” sent two athletic contestants packing. Continuing the 14th overall season of the series — and 7th under the “Celebrity” banner — the men and women were tasked with creating a four-page health/fitness spread for Cosmopolitan magazine. Judges graded the teams on originality, creativity and overall presentation. “Assigning this particular crew to do an exercise spread catering to 18-34 year old [women] was like assigning a pack of apes to do a garden party,” said Geraldo Rivera, who served again as project manager for the men’s Team Vortex. Dspite their caution, the men won over the judges with their selfie-centric idea. Olympic snowboarder Jamie Anderson, “Real Housewives” star Kenya Moore and “Kate Plus 8″ star Kate Gosselin headed to the boardroom. Trump let Anderson go after she toggled back and forth about putting “Housewives” star Brandi Glanville up for elimination instead. “The mountains are calling, and I gotta go to them,” Anderson said before leaving.

7am – C         Police: No “substantive basis” for gang-rape allegations at UVA’s Phi Psi. (Washington Examiner) — Charlottesville Police Department officials have told the University of Virginia that there was no substantive basis for the gang-rape allegations lodged against a fraternity in a November Rolling Stone article. The police began investigating the claim that a freshman U.Va. student was gang-raped by seven men (or five men, or forced to perform oral sex on five men) immediately following an explosive article in Rolling Stone that has since been discredited. In a press release announcing the reinstatement of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity accused of committing the gang rape as part of an initiation, U.Va. officials said they were told by police that the incident couldn’t have occurred at that particular university. Captain Gary Pleasants, in an e-mail to the Washington Examiner, emphasized that the department's communication to the university does not mean the investigation is concluded, just that there was “no substantive basis that the alleged incident occurred at THAT fraternity.” “We are still investigating and will release a statement once that investigation has been completed,” Pleasants added. Following the allegations put forth in Rolling Stone without any corroboration, U.Va.’s chapter of Phi Psi voluntarily surrendered its Fraternal Organization Agreement with the university and suspended all chapter activities during the investigation. U.Va. also suspended social activities for all campus Greek organizations until Jan. 9. Now Phi Psi is being reinstated, and Stephen Scipione, president of Virginia Alpha Chapter Phi Kappa Psi, reminded everyone to wait until all the facts are in before rushing to judgment in the future.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN – D-MD, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee

• Democrats, in a stark shift in messaging, to make big tax-break pitch for middle class
• Dems pitch controversial plan to tax Wall Street, to pay for new middle-class credit.

7am – E         Local news:

• New city slogan nods to city's star-spangled history – Baltimore Sun
  • The thought of another city slogan made local historian Gilbert Sandler groan. "Here we go again," he said. "We've had so many. This has been going on since 'The Ark and the Dove,'" a reference to the two ships that brought English colonists to Maryland in 1634.
  • When mayor, Gov. Martin O'Malley regularly turned to slogan-making as a way to inspire, coining at least three mottoes: "The Greatest City in America" in 2000, the "Believe" rallying cry that began in 2002 as an advertising blitz against drugs and crime, and "Baltimore — Get In On It," a marketing campaign that cost $500,000 to develop in 2006. (Even Schaefer panned the last one, saying he had "seen some dumb ones in the past, but this is the dumbest.")
  • “It's a lot better than the others,” said John Waters,the cult film director

The city may have finally created a slogan that can't be mocked. For years, verbal vandals lampooned well-meaning Baltimore slogans — scoffers turned "Charm City" into "Harm City" and "The City That Reads" into "The City That Breeds," or the more macabre, "The City That Bleeds." Then the ubiquitous "Believe" became "Behave." But the latest slogan — "Baltimore: Birthplace of The Star-Spangled Banner" — may be so straightforward and dry as to be tamper-proof. “t's a lot better than the others," said John Waters, the cult film director and Baltimore observer, in a phone interview.

• And The 10 Best Counties In America Are… (The Huffington Post) — The real estate site, Movoto, chose the best counties to live in:
  • #9: Frederick County, Maryland

Population: 234,122 / Highlights: Low poverty rate, high median household income, impressive nature and thriving cities in the local surroundings

• #8: Montgomery County, Maryland

Population: 976,203 / Highlights: Low unemployment and poverty rates, high median household income and high rates of high school graduation as well as rates of students who enroll in postgraduate degrees

• #3: Fairfax County, Virginia

Population: 1,086,743 / Highlights: High median household income, low unemployment rate, numerous Fortune 500 companies based in the area

• #1: Loudoun County, Virginia:    

Population: 315,134 / Highlights: Highest median household income of all the counties considered, incredibly low unemployment and poverty rates, impressive desirability in the housing market

8am – A         Amazing Stories:

• Former Miami Dolphin survives 16-hour ordeal in ocean. Rob Konrad walked stiffly into the room Monday morning, gingerly walked up two stairs with the help of his wife and fought back tears for the next half-hour as he related surviving an ocean ordeal after falling off his recreational boat nearly nine miles offshore.  “I shouldn’t be here,’’ he said. Sixteen hours in the water. Twenty-seven miles from where he fell to where he washed ashore. Jellyfish stings. A circling shark. And two near-misses at being rescued. “I’m grateful and thankful to be here,” he said during a news conference in Plantation. Last Thursday morning, the former Miami Dolphins fullback was taking his 31-foot boat from Lighthouse Point to Riviera Beach for service. Along the way, he put the boat on autopilot and began to troll. A big fish hit a line. As he moved the rod, a huge wave hit the boat, knocking him overboard. “At that point in time, after panicking, I realized I was in real trouble,’’ he said. “I was miles out, the boat was on autopilot heading east to the Bahamas, I didn’t have time to get out an SOS call. I knew I was in trouble.” An avid boater since his youth in New England, Konrad figured he had two or three hours before hypothermia or cramps set in. He decided to start swimming west toward land in hopes of running into another boat.
• Man Awakens After 12 Years in a "Vegetative State," Says "I Was Aware of Everything." (LifeNews.com) — In the 1980’s, 12-year-old Martin Pistorious became seriously ill with what doctor’s believed was Cryptococci Meningitis. His health started deteriorating and Martin lost his ability to move, make eye contact and even speak to others. His doctors told his parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorious, to bring him home and let him die. They told them he was as good as a vegetable. However, he didn’t die. Joan said, “Martin just kept going, just kept going.” According to NPR news, his father would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, get him dressed, load him in the car, take him to the special care center where he’d leave him. Rodney said, “Eight hours later, I’d pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I’d wake up to turn him so that he didn’t get bedsores.” For twelve years, Martin’s family cared for him without any sign that he was improving. Joan started to despair and even told her son, “I hope you die.” Today she acknowledges that was a horrible thing to say but says she just wanted some sort of relief. Remarkably, now Martin is 39-years-old and says he was totally aware of everything going on around him.  Now Martin is married and has penned a memoire about his life. He has gained control of his body and in his book Ghost Boy, he writes, “My mind was trapped inside a useless body, my arms and legs weren’t mine to control and my voice was mute. I couldn’t make a sign or sounds to let anyone know I’d become aware again. I was invisible—the ghost boy.” Martin’s survival is a testament to how little we actually know about the human brain and a good reminder that we should value all life— even when we hear the terrifying words “your loved one is a vegetable” or in a “vegetative state” from a medical professional.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — DC COUNCILMEMBER JACK EVANS, represents Ward 2 – shared his thoughts on the fatal metro incident.

8am – D         INTERVIEW LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm – discussed the optics of Obama not going to Paris.

TOMORROW:          KT McFarland