City Dogs Rescue’s Amy Bandyk, Redskins quarterback legend Joe Theismann and Democratic strategist Joe Trippi joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, February 5, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B     Best Super Bowl Snacks?

• 24 snacks to avoid at your Super Bowl party. Super Bowl Sunday is upon us. Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers fans, as well as more casual observers, are making bets and planning parties. One of the biggest sporting events of the season, last year this game drew over 114 million viewers. However, Sunday will also be home to Puppy Bowl XI, Kitten Bowl III and a wide variety of snacks to munch on as you watch these events. Not all snacks are created equally, though. For the health-conscious among us, and for those who are still sticking to their New Year’s resolutions, certain foods items are best left untouched. The experts at HealthGrove used data from the ESHA nutritional database to determine the least-healthy Super Bowl snacks. The HealthGrove team used this data to create an “Unhealthiness Index” that factors in percent daily value of fat, saturated fat, sodium and total sugar content. Each nutrient is weighted 30 percent, except for total sugar which is weighted 10 percent. The top 25 highest-scoring foods are listed, with the least-healthy snack at No. 1.

5am – C         Chance of snow showers during Friday morning commute. **A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for D.C. and Arlington, Charles, Prince George’s, Calvert and Saint Mary’s counties until 10 a.m. Friday. The National Weather Service says there is a chance of snow of 1 to 3 inches in the area. They are warning that roads may become snow covered and slippery.** FRIDAY: Snow/rain showers in the morning, especially Washington and east Highs: Low to mid-40s; feels like mid- to upper 30s with the winds

5am – D         Dem Debate Highlights: Sparks fly at Clinton, Sanders debate over who is more progressive. (Fox News) — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed sharply Thursday over who is more progressive, at a debate that saw the former secretary of state ratcheting up her criticism of the Vermont senator on several fronts – even accusing him of engineering an “artful smear” with suggestions she could be “bought” by donors. The debate, the first since the Iowa caucuses and last before next week’s critical New Hampshire primary, was by far the most confrontational of the Democratic primary race.

5am – E         Critter News:

• Herndon pooch in ‘Puppy Bowl’ starting lineup. Charlie, a pup from City Dogs Rescue in D.C., is one of 49 young rescue dogs featured in this Sunday’s Puppy Bowl XII on Animal Planet. The popular “Super Bowl” of line barkers and wide retrievers airs from 3-5 p.m., with a slobbery pre-game show starting at 2:30 p.m. Charlie, who was rescued with his puppy mates from Smyth County, now lives in Herndon with his adopter. He’s about six months old and a “mystery mixed mutt,” according to City Dogs Rescue. Charlie will play on TeamFluff — pitted this year against TeamRuff — in fierce competition for the title MVP (Most Valuable Puppy). Animal Planet paired with 44 shelters and rescue groups across the country for this year’s Puppy Bowl lineup. City Dogs Rescue also has two puppies in the Puppy Bowl pre-game show — Earl Grey, a Chihuahua/Chinese crested mix and Sebastian, a Bassett hound mix.
• Deer crashes through plate glass window of Reston home. A Reston homeowner got a surprise along with her morning coffee Thursday morning when a deer smashed through a large window of her Hunters Woods-area home. The homeowner — who asked her name and address not be used because her house is not secure right now — said she heard a large crash. “I thought it was a tree branch,” she said. “There was a rumbling sound and glass breaking. Then I looked in the sunroom and there was a mess all over.” The homeowner, who has lived in the house off of Steeplechase Road for 49 years, said the deer knocked a chair across the room. The sunroom door was closed, so the deer was unable to run through the house, she said. Among the broken glass from the 3-by-5 foot window, the homeowner and her daughter found clumps of animal hair. The homeowner said she sees deer coming through her wooded lot almost daily.
• Multiple reports of attacks by possible rabid fox in Northern Va. MCLEAN, Va. (WJLA) — Animal control is asking for help finding a rabid fox in northern Virginia, after several reports of attacks in the area. The red fox with bloody paws and a bloody nose, which can be seen in the photos above, bit and scratched McLean resident Sandy Rosenblatt in her yard around 12:40 p.m. Tuesday. Animal control officers weren’t able to locate the fox, which was described as acting lethargic, according to Fairfax County Police. About an hour after that attack on Tuesday, a man and woman walking with a baby stroller were approached by a fox as well. The man was attacked but authorities aren’t sure if he was actually bitten. This happened in a neighborhood that’s right next to the neighborhood the woman was attacked an hour before. A number of people in the neighborhood say they have seen a fox with cuts and bloody paws.

6am – A/B     Man Confronts Trump: I Want a President Who Would Be a Role Model for My Daughters. (Mediaite) — Donald Trump participated in a New Hampshire town hall on CNN earlier today, and one of the questions came from a man who asked the GOP frontrunner about being a role model for America’s children. Here is the full question asked by Joseph Manzoli about his three daughters: “I want nothing more for them than to look at their president as a role model. Throughout the course of this campaign, you’ve said some disparaging comments about women, about people from other countries, other religions, and about everybody who’s disagreed with you. Explain to me how I can look at my daughters and have them look up to President Trump as a role model.” Trump insisted he has great respect for women and has worked with many female executives.

6am – C         Obama to propose $10-per-barrel fee on oil. President Barack Obama will propose a $10-per-barrel charge on oil to fund clean transportation projects as part of his final budget request next week, the White House said Thursday. The proposal — which follows the passage of a bipartisan transportation bill last year — would have difficulty clearing the Republican-controlled Congress. In a statement, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, House majority whip, said the House would quash the “absurd” plan. Oil companies would pay the fee, which would be gradually introduced over five years. The government would use the revenue to help fund high-speed railways, autonomous cars and other travel systems, aiming to reduce emissions from the nation’s transportation system. “By placing a fee on oil, the president’s plan creates a clear incentive for private sector innovation to reduce our reliance on oil and at the same time invests in clean energy technologies that will power our future,” the White House said in a statement. Obama has prioritized reducing carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels. But some of his administration’s proposals, including the Clean Power Plan, have faced significant opposition at the federal and state level. The White House said the oil-fee proposal would invest an additional $20 billion per year to cut traffic and “provide new ways for families to get to work and school.” It would also put about $10 billion per year into regional travel systems and another $2 billion annually into clean transportation research. The proposal comes amid a brutal stretch for the U.S. oil industry. Crude prices have fallen nearly 50 percent in the last year to just below $32 per barrel, pressuring profits in the sector.

6am – D         Do You Take Off Monday After Super Bowl? Should Super Bowl Move to Saturday?

• Super Bowl Fever affects millions of American workers on Monday after game. The Monday following the big game isn’t a great day for production. (Fox Sports) – Just make it a national holiday, will you please? In case you needed more proof that the Monday following the Super Bowl is a waste of time when it comes to work productivity, here comes some tantalizing data. Lest you think this is just a trend for lazy people who are low on the totem pole at companies across the country, check this out: Of those who identified as a boss or manager, 29 percent say they may miss work on Monday.

6am – E         2016 News:

• Carson cuts campaign staff amid cash crunch, vows to stay in race. (Fox News) — Ben Carson, who as recently as November was leading Donald Trump in Iowa and seen as a contender for front-runner status in the Republican primary battle, announced Thursday he’s slashing his campaign staff on the heels of a fourth-place finish in the Hawkeye State. The retired neurosurgeon confirmed the campaign shake-up Thursday afternoon, while telling Fox News he’s staying in the race. “We will be able to continue the campaign right until Cleveland,” he said, referring to the Republican National Convention site. The downsizing comes just days before the New Hampshire primary. The Washington Post first reported that Carson plans to cut more than 50 staff positions, most at his national headquarters in Alexandria, Va. His senior staff reportedly will remain in their positions, with the bulk of cuts happening at the field operative level, as the campaign devotes its resources to New Hampshire and South Carolina.
• Mary Katharine Ham Added to ABC Debate Panel. Longtime Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham will be part of ABC’s panel for Saturday’s Republican presidential debate, asking questions of the candidates. “Very proud that (she) will be on stage to ensure conservatives have a voice,” said Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer on Twitter Thursday. The ABC debate, to be moderated by World News Tonight anchor David Muir and This Week co-host Martha Raddatz, along with WMUR political director Josh McElveen. The debate will be the first of the Republican cycle without an undercard, leading Carly Fiorina to object to the network’s criteria, which would keep her from debating.
• Independent Journal Review is co-sponsoring New Hampshire Republican presidential debate. When Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz take the stage in New Hampshire on Saturday, viewers will be able to cheer or boo their every word with a new tool from the growing Alexandria-based media company Independent Journal Review. The conservative-leaning IJReview is co-sponsoring the Republican National Committee debate alongside ABC News, marking a milestone in the growth of the 4-year-old company from a one-man operation started in 2012 to a digital media operation with 75 employees and even more contributors.
• Independent voters to play major — not critical — role in New Hampshire. (USA Today) — MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire’s independent voters won’t by themselves determine winners and losers in the state’s first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. But those voters, who officially register as “undeclared,” can determine degrees of separation between winners and losers, which could be particularly relevant this year for Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Vermont independent, running against former secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, leads Clinton 50% to 40% among registered Democrats in New Hampshire, according to a recent CNN/WMUR poll. His lead among undeclared voters who say they’ll vote in the Democratic primary is much larger — 64% to 27%, according to the poll. And he’s 56 points ahead of Clinton among those considered undeclared because they haven’t voted in the last two elections.

 

7am – A         Democratic Debate Highlights and 2016 News:

• Sanders beats Clinton in January fundraising. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders outraised rival Hillary Clinton in January. Clinton on Thursday announced a January fundraising total of $15 million, short of Sanders’s $20 million during that period. Despite that, the Clinton campaign touted the number as a sign of her widespread appeal. “We invested early in organizing and that investment has already paid off with a Hillary Clinton victory in Iowa,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. “Now, thanks to the support of more than 670,000 people across the country, we have the resources we need to take the fight to to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and beyond. We are also continuing to work on the important goal of strengthening the Democratic Party to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November.” The Clinton campaign also used Sanders’s January lead as part of a fundraising pitch, hoping to motivate supporters.
• Des Moines Register calls for audit of Iowa results: ‘Something smells in the Democratic Party.’ In a strongly worded editorial on Thursday, The Des Moines Register called on the Iowa Democratic Party to move quickly to prove that Monday’s results are correct. The piece titled “Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party,” starts out: “Once again the world is laughing at Iowa.” It gets sharper from there. “What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy,” the DMR reads. “The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt.” The editorial cites Clinton’s razor-thin victory as too close “not to do a complete audit of results.”

7am – B         INTERVIEW – AMY BANDYK – Executive Director – City Dogs Rescue

• Herndon pooch in ‘Puppy Bowl’ starting lineup. Charlie, a pup from City Dogs Rescue in D.C., is one of 49 young rescue dogs featured in this Sunday’s Puppy Bowl XII on Animal Planet. The popular “Super Bowl” of line barkers and wide retrievers airs from 3-5 p.m., with a slobbery pre-game show starting at 2:30 p.m. Charlie, who was rescued with his puppy mates from Smyth County, now lives in Herndon with his adopter. He’s about six months old and a “mystery mixed mutt,” according to City Dogs Rescue. Charlie will play on Team Fluff — pitted this year against Team Ruff — in fierce competition for the title MVP (Most Valuable Puppy).

7am – C         IRS Website Back Online, Tax Refunds Unaffected. (Forbes) — Yesterday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that several of the services and tools on the IRS website at www.irs.gov were not working. The IRS confirmed that there had been a hardware failure affecting several parts of the site. So what’s the status today? Here’s the latest on the IRS system outages. The IRS is continuing to examine the underlying cause of the outage yesterday. It’s important to note that at this time this situation appears to be a hardware failure.

7am – D         Border agent: ‘We might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether’ (Washington Examiner/Paul Bedard) — In a shocking reversal of policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being told to release illegal immigrants and no longer order them to appear at deportation hearings, essentially a license to stay in the United States, a key agent testified Thursday. What’s more, the stand down order includes a requirement that the whereabouts of illegals released are not to be tracked. “We might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether,” suggested agent Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Testifying on the two-year border surge of immigrant youths, Judd said the policy shift was prompted by Obama administration “embarrassment” that just over half of illegals ordered to appear in court actually do. “The willful failure to show up for court appearances by persons that were arrested and released by the Border Patrol has become an extreme embarrassment for the Department of Homeland Security. It has been so embarrassing that DHS and the U.S. attorney’s office has come up with a new policy,” he testified before the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. The biggest change: Undocumented immigrants are no longer given a “notice to appear” order, because they simply ignore them. Judd said that border agents jokingly refer to the NTAs as “notices to disappear.”

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White dead at 74. NEW YORK (AP) — Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White, whose horn-driven band sold more than 90 million albums and made hits like “September,” ”Shining Star” and “Boogie Wonderland,” died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, his brother Verdine said. White, who was 74, suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and had retreated from the public even as the band he founded kept performing. Earth, Wind & Fire, a nine-piece band centered featuring the two White brothers, singer Philip Bailey and the distinctive horn section, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. The band’s most successful period started with the 1975 album “That’s The Way of The World” and continued through the rest of the decade. Other hits included “Serpentine Fire,” ”That’s the Way of the World” and a cover of the Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
• The Cast Of “Hamilton” Is Performing Live During The Grammys. So, not only did Hamilton get a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album… @TheGRAMMYs: Straight from Broadway, the cast of @HamiltonMusical will perform at the 58th #GRAMMYs Feb. 15 on @CBS!
• Helen Mirren becomes the latest critic of #OscarsSoWhite backlash. Veteran actress Helen Mirren may have inadvertently made the case for #OscarsSoWhite protests while criticizing them. The 70-year-old actress, who won a best actress Oscar in 2007 for her performance in “The Queen,” recently argued that the backlash against the second straight year of all-white acting nominees is “unfair” to the academy. “It just so happened it went that way,” Mirren said about this year’s nominations during an interview with the U.K.’s Channel 4 News. She went on to say that “Idris Elba absolutely would have been nominated for an Oscar” for his role as an African warlord in the acclaimed drama “Beasts of No Nation,” but that “he wasn’t because not enough people saw, or wanted to see a film about child soldiers.”
• Matt LeBlanc jumps into the ‘Top Gear’ driving seat. (CNN)Looks like “Top Gear” is getting a new Friend. U.S. actor and “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc will join British TV and radio personality Chris Evans for presenting duties when the revamped show returns in May, the BBC has confirmed. The 48-year-old’s casting marks the first time the popular driving program has included a non-British host in its 39-year history. “Top Gear” is one of the British broadcaster’s most valuable global brands generating an estimated £150 million ($225.8 million) in revenue for the BBC’s commercial arm in 2014, according to British media reports. “As a car nut and a massive fan of Top Gear, I’m honored and excited to be a part of this iconic show’s new chapter. What a thrill!” Matt LeBlanc said in a press release. LeBlanc will join production “immediately,” according to the BBC. “Matt’s a lifelong fellow petrolhead and I’m thrilled he’s joining Top Gear,” said Evans. “Acting out our craziest car notions on screen is a dream job and I know we’ll both be debating some epic road trip ideas.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE THEISMANN – Former Redskin quarterback and Super Bowl champion

• SUPER BOWL PREVIEW: Super Bowl 50, NFL Super Bowl round, Sunday, February 7, 6:30 PM on CBS. Levi’s Stadium: Carolina Panthers vs Denver Broncos
• Redskins news: Joe Theismann believes Kirk Cousins is a Super Bowl-caliber QB

8am – B/C     Do You Take Off Monday After Super Bowl? Should Super Bowl Move to Saturday?

• Super Bowl Fever affects millions of American workers on Monday after game. The Monday following the big game isn’t a great day for production. (Fox Sports) – Just make it a national holiday, will you please? In case you needed more proof that the Monday following the Super Bowl is a waste of time when it comes to work productivity, here comes some tantalizing data. Lest you think this is just a trend for lazy people who are low on the totem pole at companies across the country, check this out: Of those who identified as a boss or manager, 29 percent say they may miss work on Monday.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – JOE TRIPPI – Democratic Strategist and Fox News Contributor – discussed his thoughts on the Democratic debate last night and the upcoming New Hampshire primary.

8am – E         2016 News: WMAL will be representin’ at the GOP Debate Saturday night: former WMAL host Mary Katharine Ham will be a moderator at the debate and Larry will contribute questions on video to the candidates.