DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, Rep. Barbara Comstock, Ivanka Trump and Ken Cuccinelli joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, February 01, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Super Tuesday

 

5am – A/B/C Caught On Tape: Aggressive Time Reporter “Choke Slammed” At Trump Rally By Secret Service. The reporter, one Christopher Morris, reached for the throat of a secret service agent. “I never touched him,” Morris says, in what appears to be a lie. Moments ago the Secret Service officially admitted that the photographer really did attack a secret service agent, who perhaps was expecting the altrecation to be with a paid Trump bodyguard, which would allow him to claim media repression. It did not quite work out that way.

5am – D         DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – DC MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER – discussed the Virginia primary, DC streetcar and her trip to Cuba.

5am – E         Critter News:

• Kids’ Farm at National Zoo closed after goats test positive for E. coli. National Zoo attraction closed due to E. coli scare. WASHINGTON — It’s hands off the animals at a popular hands-on exhibit at the Smithsonian National Zoo. All animals in the Kid’s Farm are off-limits after four goats and a cow tested positive for E. coli. “In the interest of the safety of our guests, and our staff and our animals, the area is now under quarantine and will be closed,” said National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson. The zoo routinely tests the animals for E. coli. It was during a test on Feb. 18 that the bacteria, which can cause illness, was found in the droppings of two goats. The goats were quarantined, and all the animals were tested on Feb. 22. On Friday, test results showed that four goats and a cow tested positive, which lead to the immediate closure of the exhibit.
• Tarantula toxins may lead to future painkillers. (NEW YORK) — Though they may look creepy to some, tarantulas could hold toxics that may lead researchers to discovering future painkillers. Getting stung by a nasty critter is by no means a pleasant experience. The toxins secreted by these creatures are often used to kill their prey, and they can be painful – and even dangerous – to humans. A team of researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia is working on turning a toxin found within the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula called ProTx-II into a painkiller. Their focus, presented in the Biophysical Society Meeting, was on understanding how the toxin interacted with cellular structures involved in pain, blood pressure control, muscle contraction and many other processes. Their ultimate goal is to use their understanding of this toxin to design molecules that will target pain without causing any side effects. The presentation was just a basic science study and has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Medical experts say actual development of a potential painkiller is many years away.

6am – A/B/C Cruz Calls On NY Times, Trump To Release Off-Record Audio. During a press conference on Monday afternoon, Senator Ted Cruz told reporters that he wants The New York Times to release the audio of an editorial board meeting that his rival Donald Trump had with the paper. The senator says various attendees familiar with the recording and transcript suggest Trump may not stand by his immigration views as president.

6am – D         INTERVIEW — CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA COMSTOCK (R-Virginia) – discussed the Virginia primary and why she’s supporting Marco Rubio.

6am – E         Subway to ensure ‘Footlongs’ measure up after lawsuit. NEW YORK (AP) — Subway customers can finally rest assured that their “Footlong” sandwiches will be as long as promised. A judge last week granted final approval to a settlement of a class-action suit filed against Subway after an Australian teenager in 2013 posted an image of his sandwich on Facebook that was only 11 inches. The image garnered international media attention, with The New York Post writing that it found four out of seven Footlongs it purchased in New York “measured only 11 or 11.5 inches.” A judge had given preliminary approval in October to a settlement between Subway’s parent company Doctor’s Associates and plaintiffs’ attorneys. Final approval was granted on Feb. 25.

7am – A         Super Tuesday Preview:

• VIRGINIA PRIMARY: WASHINGTON — Many more Virginia voters are expected to cast ballots Tuesday than the last time both major parties held presidential primaries, so elections officials want to ensure voters are prepared before coming to the polls. Fairfax County General Registrar Cameron Sasnett says the most important things voters can do to get in and out quickly is to come prepared and make sure that they go to the correct polling place. All Virginia Election Day polling hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Trump Pushes Back on KKK criticism.

7am – B/C    INTERVIEW — IVANKA TRUMP – businesswoman and the daughter of Ivana Trump and real estate developer Donald Trump – joined WMAL to discuss the Virginia primary, the criticism of her father’s KKK comments, his trade comments and more.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — KEN CUCCINELLI – president of Senate Conservatives Fund and the former attorney general of Virginia – discussed the Virginia primary and why he supports Ted Cruz.

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• Ben Higgins breaks from ‘Bachelor’ tradition, tells TWO women he loves them. In 20 seasons, many women have told a Bachelor that they love him, but rarely does he say it back. Fresh from their hometown dates, JoJo, Caila, Lauren B. and Bachelor Ben Higgins headed to sunny Jamaica for their fantasy suite dates. In Ben’s slightly awkward quasi-commercial for Jamaica, he admitted that he could fall in love in such a beautiful place.
• George Kennedy, beefy character actor, dead at 91. (CNN) George Kennedy, the brawny, Oscar-winning character actor known for playing cops, soldiers and blue-collar authority figures in such films as “Cool Hand Luke,” “Airport” and the “Naked Gun” films, has died. He was 91. Kennedy died Sunday in Boise, Idaho, said his grandson, Cory Schenkel. “He passed Sunday morning, due to old age and some health issues,” Schenkel said. The New York-born Kennedy came by his military gravitas honestly; he served in World War II and spent 16 years in the U.S. Army, many of them with Armed Forces Radio. In the 1950s, he was an adviser to Phil Silvers’ “Sgt. Bilko” show and then started getting acting roles.
• Ding Dong, The Last Munchkin Is Gone. Or Is He? Jerry Maren was a teenager when the Lollipop Guild welcomed twister-traveler Dorothy Gale to the merry old land of Oz. On Sunday, February 28, the last surviving Munchkin skipped down the yellow brick road into eternity. Not everyone knew his name, but Jerry Maren was recognized everywhere he went. The diminutive, Boston-bred thespian made his second feature-length movie appearance as the leader of the Lollipop Guild in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film classic, The Wizard of Oz. Born Gerald Marenghi on January 24, 1920, Jerry Maren played an array of characters over the course of his lengthy career. After portraying the gruff, frog-voiced munchkin who presents Dorothy with candy and a song upon her arrival at the in-color portion of The Wizard of Oz, Jerry Maren went on to become a household face, if not a household name.

8am – A/B/C             CVS manager, veteran fired after taking down two robbers in his Beltsville store. BELTSVILLE, Md. (ABC7) — Joe Morici joined the Army right out of high school. After serving his country as a sergeant in a medivac unit for a year in Afghanistan, he came home and he went to work for CVS. He recently managed a store in Beltsville, Maryland. He says Friday morning his military instincts kicked in when two robbery suspects entered the business. Those instincts got him fired. “Two individuals were jumping the counter into our pharmacy,” says Morici. Police say the suspects took narcotics from the pharmacy’s safe. Morici says fearing for the safety of his customers and co-workers, he pursued the suspects to the front door where one of the suspects attacked him with this screwdriver.

8am – D/E     2016 News