Weather Channel's Richard Lewelling, Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, VDOT, MD SHA, Fox 5's Tucker Barnes, WMAL's Steve Burns, CNN's Jake Tapper and Fox's Janice Dean joined WMAL Tuesday morning.

Listen here to Tuesday's show!

INTERVIEW – JAKE TAPPER – host of CNN's The Lead and CNN's Quiz Show Champion

INTERVIEW – TUCKER BARNES – Fox 5 meteorologist

INTERVIEW — LT GEN TOM MCINERNERY – retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General and senior military analyst for Fox News

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Hosts: Larry O’Connor and Dan Bongino

5am – A         WEATHER INTERVIEW – RICHARD LEWELLING – Weather Channel

Snow's on the way out of the District. Any snow across the Eastern Shore of Maryland done by 6AM at the latest. Snowfall amounts of 3-6" reported across much of the region.  4 inches at Reagan and 4 inches near the National Zoo.  Coldest air in over 20 years expected for the District Thursday Night into Friday With sub zero temperatures possible.

5am – B/C     Judge OKs temporary halt to Obama's amnesty order. (USA Today) — A federal judge has granted a request to block actions taken by the Obama administration that would grant benefits — including deferring deportation — to immigrants. Abbott filed suit in December on behalf of Texas and other states opposed executive action proposed by Obama in November. The temporary injunction will halt the administration's actions on immigration — moves that could protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation — as the states' lawsuit moves forward. The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen, cites a failure by the White House to comply with a law detailing how the federal government must establish regulations, according to legal documents and the Austin American-Statesman.

5am – D         Bill would require a license to sell cigarettes in Virginia. (Washington Post) — RICHMOND — A state report linking Virginia cigarette smuggling to terrorist organizations has prompted a Republican state senator to push a bill that would require retailers and wholesalers to obtain a state license to sell cigarettes. Reeves’s bill would create a retail dealer’s license for the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. For retailers, the license would cost $150 a year. For wholesale distributors, it would be $750 for three years. The person seeking the license would be subject to a criminal background check. Currently, there is no need for a license. Smugglers who want to avoid taxes on cigarettes tend to pose as retailers when they buy large quantities from wholesalers. The bill would transfer authority for regulating cigarette and tobacco sales from the Department of Taxation to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which Reeves said inspects locations where alcohol is also sold. Wholesalers would keep records of retailers who purchase from them, something that is not done now. Virginia has the second-lowest cigarette taxes in the nation at 30 cents a pack, or $3 for a carton.

5am – E         Live from New York: It's an 'SNL' ratings hit! (USA Today) — Maybe Saturday Night Live should hold a 40th-anniversary special every year. Sunday's star-studded spectacular averaged 23.1 million viewers for the three-hour portion that ran in prime time, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. The three prime time hours, which featured such renowned SNL stars as Chevy Chase, Tina Fey and Mike Myers, marked the top Sunday entertainment broadcast for NBC in viewers and young adults since the 2004 Golden Globes (23.4 million). The audience number could drop a bit when the ratings that include the final half hour are released, because the audience declined to a degree as the evening progressed. Overall, the prime time portion of the celebration, which drew scores of SNL alumni along with famous actors, comedians and musicians, also delivered the biggest entertainment-program audience for NBC, not counting post-Super Bowl shows, since the Frasier finale in 2004 (23.9 million) and the largest number of young adults since the Will & Grace finale in 2006. Excluding the Super Bowl and major awards shows, the three hours scored the biggest broadcast-network numbers in viewers and young adults since Ashton Kutcher's debut on Two and a Half Men in 2011 (28.7 million) and an American Idol audition show in 2012, respectively. The hour-long red-carpet special that preceded the 3½-hour special averaged 11.1 million viewers. In social media, 9.1 people saw 1.3 million tweets about the special on Sunday.

6am – A         WEATHER UPDATE:

• INTERVIEW – BOB RAGER – Spokesperson – Maryland State Highway Administration
• INTERVIEW – MICHAEL MURPHY – VDOT Spokesperson – discussing the Virginia roads
• INTERVIEW – STEVE BURNS – WMAL's Reporter driving around in the snow

6am – B         Ruth Bader Ginsburg: ‘At the Moment, Congress Is Not Functioning Very Well.’ (Mediaite) — During her lengthy interview with MSNBC’s Irin Carmon, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the current Congress isn’t functioning terribly well and not much is getting done. Part of the interview aired tonight on The Rachel Maddow Show, and in it Carmon asked Ginsburg about concerns that the achievements of the civil rights era (most notably the Voting Rights Act) “are being rolled back.” Doing anything about the Voting Rights Act would require the input of Congress, and Ginsburg said, “at the moment, our Congress is not functioning very well.” She recalled how just a few years ago, the Voting Right Act was, rather non-controversially, renewed by both the House and Senate. But again, she said, the current Congress “is not equipped to do anything.”

6am – C         Listeners Called In With Updates About The Roads.

6am – D         Federal Gun Permits?

• Cornyn pushing for federal reciprocity law for carry permits. (Ed Morrissey/Hot Air) — For most people with carry permits, travel to other states presents a thorny legal issue. Each state has its own laws regarding the issue of permits, and while many of them have reciprocity agreements with selected other states, some of them do not. Navigating the legal thickets to legally carry across the state lines can be confusing, and potentially put otherwise law-abiding citizens at risk for felony prosecution. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) attempted to resolve that problem in the last session of Congress, but even his bipartisan coalition couldn’t succeed in getting a bill passed in the Democrat-controlled upper chamber. He’s relaunching the effort in the new GOP- controlled Senate.
• New Yorkers slam Texas Republican’s effort to force all states to accept lax gun law. (NY Daily News) — WASHINGTON — A Texas Republican’s bid to force all states to accept the lax gun laws of the country’s most firearm-friendly states has New Yorkers up in arms. Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, introduced a “concealed-carry reciprocity” bill Thursday. A top priority for the National Rifle Association, the measure would force states like New York with relatively strict gun laws to allow individuals who have concealed-carry privileges in their home state to pack heat.  Under the measure, gun owners would have to comply with concealed-carry laws in any state they visit. But the bill requires that states honor other states’ loose laws for buying guns — so that a person who would be barred from buying a gun in New York would be allowed to carry one here if their home state permits the acquisition. For instance, a stalking conviction would bar a person from owning in a gun in many states. But stalkers can buy weapons in New Hampshire.  Under Cornyn’s proposal, they could legally carry the gun in states like New York. The bill “would create a lowest common denominator that makes the weakest state requirements the law of the land,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group funded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  “This bill is evil and dangerous,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Democrats for years have blocked similar bills. But the Republicans’ Senate takeover opened the door for congressional approval.

6am – E         CNN’s Biggest Names Face Off in Wild Presidents Day Quiz Show. (Mediaite) — CNN aired its Presidents Day quiz show tonight, and finally you get to see what happens when CNN anchors stop being nice and start getting real. And by “real,” I mean “real acquainted with trivia about U.S. presidents.” The three teams––Jake Tapper and Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, & Erin Burnett and John Berman––all faced off in the quiz show area, with Anderson Cooper hosting the festivities and an excited audience cheering everyone on. And, of course, all three teams were playing for charity. Now, this being a game show, it was full of some fun moments, revealing a lighter side to the people delivering your daily and nightly news.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — LT GEN TOM MCINERNERY – retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General and senior military analyst for Fox News

• Obama Admin. Spokeswoman Says This Is the Key to Defeating Islamic State — and It’s Not ‘Killing Them’

7am – B         Judge OKs temporary halt to Obama's amnesty order. (USA Today) — A federal judge has granted a request to block actions taken by the Obama administration that would grant benefits — including deferring deportation — to immigrants. Abbott filed suit in December on behalf of Texas and other states opposed executive action proposed by Obama in November. The temporary injunction will halt the administration's actions on immigration — moves that could protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation — as the states' lawsuit moves forward.

7am – C         Lady Gaga gets engaged — with heart-shaped ring! She’s going to marry her longtime boyfriend, Taylor Kinney. They met in 2011 on the set of Gaga’s You & I music video. It was the perfect (if maybe a tad cliche) romantic proposal: He popped the question on Valentine’s Day — with a heart-shaped ring! Us Weekly says the happy couple celebrated at Gaga’s family’s restaurant, Joanne Trattoria, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, after the Big Ask.

Lesley Gore – the singer behind 'Its My Party' and 'You Don't Own Me' has died of cancer in New York at the age of 68. (AP) — Singer-songwriter Lesley Gore, who topped the charts in 1963 at age 16 with her epic song of teenage angst, "It's My Party," and followed it up with the hits "Judy's Turn to Cry," and the feminist anthem "You Don't Own Me," died Monday. She was 68. Gore died of lung cancer at New York University Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, according to her partner of 33 years, Lois Sasson. "She was a wonderful human being — caring, giving, a great feminist, great woman, great human being, great humanitarian," Sasson, a jewelry designer, told The Associated Press. Brooklyn-born and New Jersey-raised, Gore was discovered by Quincy Jones as a teenager and signed to Mercury Records. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in English/American literature.

7am – D         Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: ISIS Represents Islam Like KKK Represents Christianity. (Mediaite) — Former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stopped by Morning Joe on Monday, presumably to promote his new children’s book, Stealing the Game, but the hosts also asked him to discuss a recent column he wrote for Time about the role that Islam does or does not play in terror attacks like the one against Charlie Hebdo. “Another horrendous act of terrorism has taken place and people like myself who are on media speed-dial under ‘Celebrity Muslims’ are thrust in the spotlight to angrily condemn, disavow, and explain—again—how these barbaric acts are in no way related to Islam,” Abdul-Jabbar, who converted to Islam in the late 1960s, wrote last month. Asked by Mika Brzezinski to explain what he believes is behind the actions of a group like ISIS, he said, “It’s a play for money and power, and these people try to impose their will on people so people will listen to them, and they can be in charge. That’s all it’s about. They’ve taken on a fascist attitude and a fascist approach to everything. You do what we say or you die.” “You can make parallels to things that have happened here in America. Like the Ku Klux Klan saying they are the Christian knights,” Abdul-Jabbar added later. “And they do not practice Christianity.”

7am – E         INTERVIEW – TUCKER BARNES – Fox 5 meteorologist

• Several Inches Fall in D.C. Area; Schools, Federal Government Closed. Heaviest snow expected until 3 a.m. Tuesday. The majority of public schools in the DC area, along with the federal government, will be closed as continues to accumulate overnight into Tuesday. The storm dumped at least 4 inches of snow on the D.C. metro area; some areas south of D.C. were walloped with 6 inches. Winter storm warnings are effect until noon Tuesday. The federal government's closure, the first of the winter, was expected to keep tens of thousands of commuters off the roads and rails Tuesday morning and afternoon. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said non-emergency personnel in the Washington area had excused absences while emergency employees and telework-ready employees were to follow their agencies' policies.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – JAKE TAPPER – host of CNN's The Lead and CNN's Quiz Show Champion

• CNN’s Biggest Names Face Off in Wild Presidents Day Quiz Show. The three teams––Jake Tapper and Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, & Erin Burnett and John Berman––all faced off in the quiz show area, with Anderson Cooper hosting the festivities and an excited audience cheering everyone on. And, of course, all three teams were playing for charity.
• Obama Admin. Spokeswoman Says This Is the Key to Defeating Islamic State — and It’s Not ‘Killing Them’
• Judge OKs temporary halt to Obama's amnesty order. A federal judge has granted a request to block actions taken by the Obama administration that would grant benefits — including deferring deportation — to immigrants.

8am – B         Celebrity Apprentice Finale Recap: Leeza Gibbons Is the Winner. (People) — Well, Celebrity Apprentice fans, the final boardroom has come and gone, more than a million dollars was raised for charity, the words "toxic trick" were tossed around and Donald Trump pointed his finger guns at 15 different people before naming the latest Celebrity Apprentice. Without further ado, the winner of Celebrity Apprentice season 7 is Leeza Gibbons! Overall, Leeza had one major thing going for her that Geraldo Rivera didn't: Her team didn't despise her. I'll just quote Lorenzo Lamas, who was directing Geraldo's advertisement for Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter: "Geraldo's like a cold wind – you kind of have to shelter yourself at first because it's snappy." To his credit, Geraldo was a fierce competitor – one who lacked absolutely no self-confidence and even called himself "almost iconic" at one point while filming a commercial meant to promote Universal Orlando but that was really more of a testament to his brilliance and charisma as a journalist.

8am – D         WEATHER UPDATE:

• INTERVIEW – JANICE DEAN – Fox News senior meteorologist and author of "Freddy the Frogcaster and the Big Blizzard"
• INTERVIEW – BOB RAGER – Spokesperson – Maryland State Highway Administration
• INTERVIEW – MICHAEL MURPHY – VDOT Spokesperson – discussing the Virginia roads

TOMORROW:          Senator Rick Santorum and KT McFarland