Rod Wheeler, A.B. Stoddard and Washington Post’s Keith Alexander joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, July 29, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

 

5am – A/B/C DNC AUDIO HIGHLIGHTS: Clinton Accepts Democratic Nomination.

5am – D/E     DRIVE AT FIVE: ROD WHEELER – Former DC Homicide Detective

• Charges dropped in Chandra Levy murder.  (CNN) A judge on Thursday dismissed murder charges against a man accused in the death of Chandra Levy, a Washington intern whose 2001 disappearance created national headlines. Federal prosecutors said they can no longer prove a case against Ingmar Guandique, Bill Miller, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, said in a news release. “Today, in the interests of justice and based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week, the office moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique with the May 2001 murder of Chandra Levy,” he said. Miller did not specify what the developments were. The public defender’s office said the dismissal vindicates Guandique, who had always maintained his innocence, passed a lie detector test and was the victim of “the most unreliable evidence: a jailhouse informant.”
• Why prosecutors dropped charges against the man accused of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy. (Washington Post/Keith Alexander) — Babs Proller met the man when she was living in a Maryland hotel. He had helped the local actress carry her dog, Buddy, to her fourth-floor room, and over the course of several days in early July, the two neighbors became friendly. She soon learned that her new acquaintance, Armando Morales, was a convicted felon and former gang member, recently released after decades in prison. He was also the star witness in one of the Washington area’s most sensational murder trials. Proller eventually became suspicious of Morales and began recording hours of their conversations. Eventually, she contends, Morales revealed a secret that she caught on tape, telling her that he had lied when he testified in 2010 that a onetime cellmate had confessed to killing Chandra Levy.

6am –A/B/C  Hillary Clinton: “America is once again at a moment of reckoning.” PHILADELPHIA — With her speech formally accepting the Democratic nomination Thursday night, Hillary Clinton capped off a week of oratory defending the strength of the American spirit and outlining the general election argument against Republican nominee Donald Trump. “America is once again at a moment of reckoning,” Clinton said. “Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees: it truly is up to us.”

6am – D/E     Convincing men to wear kilts instead of pants. (CNN Money) — Seattle business wants to end “tyranny of trousers.” Steven “Krash” Villegas was dying from the heat working construction jobs in Spain nearly 20 years ago when the idea popped into his head. “I was looking for something that was practical — cooler than pants or shorts for sure– and that was something I could wear all day long, something else than big tough jeans,” says Villegas, owner of Utilikilts. “I thought that the traditionally Scottish kilts were a great idea, but I wasn’t Scottish. So I got around to saying I want something that’s like a Scottish kilt but with pockets and belts and washable,” says Villegas. So he cut up an old pair of Army pants and created a kind of kilt with pockets and belt loops. “It worked quite well and one day I wore it out in public and got a lot of compliments. Then I started wearing it a lot more and I started refining the idea.” When Villegas got back to the U.S., he started his company Utilikilts in 2000 based on that prototype. Sixteen years later, Villegas says his store has sold about 250,000 utility kilts. “Physically, physiologically, men should be wearing the skirts,” he says. “It’s something men should’ve claimed a long time ago.” The California native sells them online, in his shop on Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square and at festivals around the country.

7am – A         DNC AUDIO HIGHLIGHTS

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – KEITH ALEXANDER – Crime Reporter, The Washington Post

• Charges dropped in Chandra Levy murder.  (CNN) A judge on Thursday dismissed murder charges against a man accused in the death of Chandra Levy, a Washington intern whose 2001 disappearance created national headlines. Federal prosecutors said they can no longer prove a case against Ingmar Guandique, Bill Miller, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, said in a news release. “Today, in the interests of justice and based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week, the office moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique with the May 2001 murder of Chandra Levy,” he said. Miller did not specify what the developments were. The public defender’s office said the dismissal vindicates Guandique, who had always maintained his innocence, passed a lie detector test and was the victim of “the most unreliable evidence: a jailhouse informant.”
• Why prosecutors dropped charges against the man accused of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy. (Washington Post/Keith Alexander) — Babs Proller met the man when she was living in a Maryland hotel. He had helped the local actress carry her dog, Buddy, to her fourth-floor room, and over the course of several days in early July, the two neighbors became friendly. She soon learned that her new acquaintance, Armando Morales, was a convicted felon and former gang member, recently released after decades in prison.

7am – D/E     Moment of silence for fallen cops marred by jeering at DNC convention. (Fox News) — A hard-won moment of silence for fallen police officers Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention was marred by chants from the crowd of “black lives matter!” in an ugly moment that angered law enforcement representatives and underscored the anti-cop climate that has gripped the nation. After the mothers of black men who had been killed in racially charged incidents were welcomed onto the stage earlier in the week, Philadelphia’s Fraternal Order of Police chapter pressed the DNC to honor fallen cops. Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez was invited to speak about the five cops killed in her city July 7, and said she and her fellow officers took the job to “serve and protect, not to hate and discriminate.” When Valdez asked the crowd to join her in a moment of silence for cops killed in the line of duty, jeers erupted from the crowd. “Please help me to honor ALL of America’s fallen officers with a moment of silence,” as the anti-police group’s namesake slogan echoed through the Wells Fargo Center. Valdez ignored the jeers and introduced family members of fallen police officers, including the mother of Moses Walker, a 19-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department who was gunned down in 2012 hold a moment of silence.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — A.B. STODDARD – associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist – analyzed the DNC convention and Clinton’s speech.

8am – B         Idina Menzel to Star in ‘Beaches’ TV Movie for Lifetime. (Hollywood Reporter) — She is taking on the role originally played by Bette Midler in the 1988 feature film of the same name. Idina Menzel is headed for the beach with Lifetime. The Frozen and Rent favorite has been tapped to take on Bette Midler’s role in a TV movie remake of 1988’s Beaches, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The film follows the serendipitous meeting of two kids on the Venice Boardwalk, who, though worlds apart in lifestyle, embark on an unexpected and lifelong friendship. CC (Menzel) is an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles until she is discovered by a director who gives CC her first big shot. Hillary (Barbara Hershey in the feature) is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own destiny. Their friendship — even with its ups and downs — sustains them for decades. Production is set to begin on the Lifetime movie Aug. 15 in Vancouver. The movie’s music — including “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “The Glory of Love” — will be included, with new takes on those as well as several other songs that Menzel will record specifically for the Lifetime incarnation.

8am – C         Documents indicate IRS officials knew of Tea Party targeting since 2011. (Fox News) –– A new batch of FBI documents released Thursday by Judicial Watch indicates that several senior Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials were aware of the targeting of conservative groups almost two years before they told Congress. Lois Lerner, who oversaw tax-exempt groups for the IRS, and top IRS official Holly Paz “knew that agents were targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny as early as 2011,” the conservative legal advocacy group said in a release Thursday. The IRS did not respond to requests for comment.  The detailed narratives of FBI agent investigations, known as FBI 302 documents, were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. According to the documents, Paz and other IRS officials were notified in the late spring and summer of 2011 that agents in the Cincinnati branch were flagging Tea Party and conservative groups for additional scrutiny in their applications for nonprofit status. In the spring of 2012, official Nancy Marks was tasked with investigating how applications were being processed and to find any problems. The documents show she told then-acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on May 3, 2012 that “Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity.” Miller responded by throwing “his pencil across the room” and saying, “Oh sh-t,” according to the FBI summaries of interviews with officials.

8am – D         DNC Audio Highlights

8am – E         Navy to Name Ship After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk. The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News. The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif. The Secretary of the Navy’s office is deferring releasing additional information until the naming announcement, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.