Todd Eberly, Rod Wheeler, Larry Kudlow and guest host Lisa Booth joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Lisa Boothe

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C UPDATE: EgyptAir plane hijacked, diverted to Cyprus. CAIRO — An Egyptian commercial airliner carrying dozens of passengers and several crewmembers was hijacked by a passenger who threatened he had an explosive belt and and forced to land in Cyprus Tuesday, according to the country’s civil aviation authority. Cyprus’ president said the hijacking incident was “not something which has to do with terrorism” although Cyprus’ state broadcaster said the hijacker was asking for the release of political prisoners in Egypt. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said the government of Cyprus was doing its utmost so that all passengers on the EgyptAir flight are safe. EgyptAir flight MS 181 was flying from the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria to the capital, Cairo, and was scheduled to land at 7.15 am. Instead, the plane was diverted to Larnaca, Cyprus, and there were suspicions of a bomb aboard, a Cypriot government official said. EgyptAir tweeted that its flight was “officially hijacked.” Later, it tweeted that “negotiations … resulted in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners.” Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s minister of aviation, told a press conference hours after the hijacking that the hijacker was still holding seven hostages, including the pilot’s captain, his assistant, one stewardess, a security officer and three passengers.

5am – B/C     Capitol shooting: Suspect in custody. Washington (CNN) U.S. Capitol Police shot a Tennessee man Monday afternoon after he pulled out what appeared to be a weapon at the Capitol Visitor Center, law enforcement officials said. A female civilian bystander was injured by shrapnel, but no U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured. “We believe this is an act of a single person who has frequented the Capitol grounds before, and there is no reason to believe this is anything more than a criminal act,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa said. Police said the suspect, Larry Russell Dawson, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. He underwent surgery and was in stable but critical condition Monday. Once released from the hospital, the 66-year-old will be presented to the District of Columbia Superior Court, U.S. Capitol Police said. The police chief described the woman’s injuries as “minor” and said she was taken to a hospital.

5am – D         Cuba Trip:

• Fidel Castro lectures Obama after Cuba trip. President Barack Obama did not meet with Fidel Castro during his historic visit to Cuba last week, but apparently that does not mean that Castro did not have any thoughts about el presidente norteamericano in his country. Castro ripped into the president and his words during the visit in El Granma, the official state newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, bringing up Obama’s relative youth, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the role of both countries in ending the apartheid in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent in an article titled “El hermano Obama.” “Native populations do not exist at all in the minds of Obama,” Castro wrote. “Nor does he say that racial discrimination was swept away by the Revolution; that retirement and salary of all Cubans were enacted by this before Mr. Barack Obama was 10 years old.”
• White House: Fidel Castro’s Criticism of Obama Proves Trip to Cuba Worked. White House spokesman Josh Earnest spun Fidel Castro’s lengthy critique of President Obama Monday as proof his Cuba visit had its “intended effect.” Obama became the first sitting president in nearly 90 years to visit Cuba last week, where he attended a baseball game and did a joint press conference with Cuban president Raul Castro. Obama, who never met with Fidel but added he would be open to it, said during the visit that he welcomed the communist nation’s criticism of the United States. Cuba arrested dozens of government critics the day Obama arrived. Fidel Castro then unleashed a blistering editorial in the Cuban state newspaper that, among other things, assailed Obama’s youth. “So, Fidel Castro offered up a 1,500-word critique of the president’s visit to Cuba. Is that a sign that the changes sought by the president are going to be a long time in coming … and how much influence does Fidel Castro still have in that community?” AP reporter Kevin Freking asked.

5am – E         Feds drop fight with Apple over terrorist’s iPhone. But the larger battle between privacy and security is far from over. The federal government Monday dropped its bid to force Apple to help unlock an iPhone used by a shooter in last year’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, saying the FBI has succeeded in accessing the data on the device. The development scuttles — for now — what was shaping up as a momentous court fight between the U.S. government and technology companies that are increasingly turning to encryption to secure phones and computers against the prying eyes of both hackers and law enforcement. But the Justice Department refused late Monday to rule out taking other tech companies to court to force their aid in cracking encryption used by terrorists or criminals. That means this pause in the struggle between privacy and security is most likely just a ceasefire, advocates on both sides of the debate agreed.

6am – A/B/C KASICH retells a story he told a student: “There are a lot of jobs for a political science major…at Nordstrom.” Do you feel your college degree helped you?

6am – D/E     ‘Name the Nestlings’: D.C.’s two new eaglets need names. WASHINGTON — The American Eagle Foundation needs your help naming two new eaglets that recently hatched inside a nest at the U.S. National Arboretum. The “Name the Nestlings” social media campaign allows nest cam fans from to suggest names for these two eaglets via Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook using the hashtags #dceaglecam and #namethenestlings. The foundation says the eaglets, currently named “DC2″ and “DC3,” are in need of “creative and symbolic names that live up to the names of their parents”— Mr. President and The First Lady.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — TODD EBERLY – Maryland political analyst and Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy,  St. Mary’s College of Maryland

• Latest on the MD race:  Donna Edwards & Chris Van Hollen battled over trade, Social Security in a debate on Friday.
• Latest on 2016 race: Sanders gaining momentum and CNN GOP Town Hall tonight

7am – B         HILLARY NEWS:

• Susan Sarandon: I Don’t Think I Could Vote For Hillary If Sanders Loses. Bernie Sanders supporter and actress Susan Sarandon tells MSNBC’s Chris Hayes she doesn’t think she would be able to vote for Hillary Clinton if she is the Democratic party’s presidential nominee. “I think Bernie would probably encourage people to [support Hillary if he loses] because he doesn’t have any ego in this thing,” Sarandon said. “But I think a lot of people are, ‘sorry, I just can’t bring myself to [vote for Hillary].'”

• SHOCK CLAIM: Bill Clinton snorted cocaine off my coffee table, former lover says. (The American Mirror) — Sally Miller’s past makes her a danger to Hillary Clinton’s future. As Bill Clinton’s former lover tells The American Mirror, Miller’s background in television and radio equips her to effectively critique the Democratic front runner for president — not to mention spill the secrets Bill told her during their three-month affair in 1983. We recently spent several hours with Miller, where she talked about her time in Arkansas and she recounted the time she spent with Clinton when he was governor. Miller says Bill would come to the back door of her previous Little Rock home for their trysts, where he would wear her black nightie and play his saxophone while she played the piano. And in the course of our discussion, she told us how the sitting governor would snort cocaine off her coffee table.
• Grassley hits back at Clinton: ‘The FBI’s going to question her.’ The Judiciary Committee chairman preemptively responds to criticism for blocking Merrick Garland.  ESTHERVILLE, Iowa — Sen. Chuck Grassley preemptively swung back at Hillary Clinton ahead of her Monday speech in which she’s expected to hammer the Judiciary Committee chairman for his role in blocking the confirmation of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.  “With all the troubles she’s getting on email, and the FBI’s going to question her, I would imagine she’d want to change the tone of her campaign,” Grassley (R-Iowa) told POLITICO in an interview here. He was apparently referring to a Los Angeles Times story Monday that indicated an FBI investigation of the private email server she used as secretary of state is entering a final phase that will include interviews with her advisers. The Democratic presidential front-runner is poised to criticize Grassley during a speech later Monday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The two have a contentious history: Grassley has led probes into Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Grassley said Clinton’s comments would have no bearing on his plans not to hold confirmation hearings for Garland.

7am – C         Ex-lawyer asks Supreme Court to allow release of ‘D.C. Madam’ phone records — or else. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON — The former attorney for the “D.C. Madam” has asked the United States Supreme Court to allow him to release records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service, including customer names, addresses and Social Security numbers, because they allegedly could affect the 2016 presidential election. In an application to the high court, filed Monday, Montgomery Blair Sibley is asking to be released from a judge’s 2007 restraining order which prohibited him from sharing Palfrey’s telephone records, during the much-publicized run-up to her federal trial for racketeering, money laundering and mail fraud. And, if the Supreme Court won’t hear his argument, Sibley says he will release the identifying information of Palfrey’s customers.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – ROD WHEELER – Law Enforcement Expert and Former Washington DC Homicide Detective

• Capitol shooting: Suspect in custody. Washington (CNN) U.S. Capitol Police shot a Tennessee man Monday afternoon after he pulled out what appeared to be a weapon at the Capitol Visitor Center, law enforcement officials said. A female civilian bystander was injured by shrapnel, but no U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured. “We believe this is an act of a single person who has frequented the Capitol grounds before, and there is no reason to believe this is anything more than a criminal act,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa said. Police said the suspect, Larry Russell Dawson, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. He underwent surgery and was in stable but critical condition Monday. Once released from the hospital, the 66-year-old will be presented to the District of Columbia Superior Court, U.S. Capitol Police said. The police chief described the woman’s injuries as “minor” and said she was taken to a hospital.

 7am – E        Wisconsin Radio Took On Trump In Hard-Hitting Interviews.

8am – A/B/C Owner of controversial backyard ice rink reaches a deal with Montgomery officials. The battle over a backyard hockey rink is over. Montgomery County officials have agreed to build a synthetic hockey rink in Poolesville, Md., similar to the controversial one Marc Kohn built in his yard to honor his late stepdaughter, a lifelong hockey fan. “It’s really incredible,” Kohn said. “I actually can’t believe it. I’ve had so many people tell me that they’ve never seen the government work so fast.” Gabriel Albornoz, director of the county’s Recreation Department, said the rink will cost between $70,000 and $140,000 to build. The county will use existing funds and won’t need County Council approval. “Marc clearly tapped into a real need and interest for some place to skate in Poolesville,” Albornoz said. “Hockey and ice skating in general is growing and on the rise.” Kohn opened Mel’s Rink in mid-December, naming it after his stepdaughter Melanie Osborne, who died of a respiratory disease. The rink, set atop rolling fields of grass in rural Poolesville, was an instant hit with children and their parents. Dozens of people came out to skate on the synthetic ice every day, dropping donations into an imitation Stanley Cup. For Kohn, 51, the 2,100-square-foot rink reminded him of skating on backyard ponds while growing up near Boston. He hoped to give skating lessons to help recoup the building costs, which totaled about $40,000.

8am –D          INTERVIEW — LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm – discussed Scott Walker’s endorsement of Cruz, terrorism problem abroad and more.

8am –E          ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

• Kiefer Sutherland has released a serious video for his serious country song. Kiefer Sutherland is taking his country music career seriously. Very seriously.  He’s so serious in his new music video for “Not Enough Whiskey,” in fact, that at one point, Jack Bauer just stares sadly and longingly at a glass of whiskey, only breaking his gaze to stare equally sadly and longingly through a window. Speaking to Rolling Stone, the actor said that that’s kind of the point.  “If I hear about an actor doing a music project, my eyes are the first to roll,” Sutherland said. “It’s been done before and, on some levels, not very well. A lot of actors make records but won’t tour to support them or make videos, and it ends up not being serious. I felt strongly that this was something I wanted to do.” “Not Enough Whiskey” is featured on Sutherland’s upcoming debut LP, Down in a Hole, which he told Rolling Stone he started working on about two years ago. Sutherland also said that most of Down in a Hole is just as personal as “Not Enough Whiskey.”
• Harrison Ford is auctioning off Han Solo’s #TheForceAwakens leather jacket for charity. The leather jacket Harrison Ford’s Han Solo wore in the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens will hit the auction block, with all proceeds from the unique item benefitting charity. The jacket, which is currently being auctioned off by If Only, also comes autographed by Ford. The current bid on the piece of Force Awakens memorabilia is $17,000. The auction is set to conclude on April 11th.
• Dancing with the Stars elimination: Though Geraldo Rivera dressed as his friend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, for his salsa with Edyta Sliwinska, he didn’t have the same voter turnout. The seasoned newsman is no longer part of the competition. Geraldo Rivera: @GeraldoRivera Obviously disappointed by my performance @DancingABC -Mostly because wonderful partner @Edyta_Sliwinska won’t be centerstage. Big Thx to her 11:05 PM – 28 Mar 2016 · Los Angeles, CA, United States