Mercatus Center’s Brian Blase, The Hill’s Joe Concha, General Jack Keane and Italy correspondent Scott McLean joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Big Brother? U.S. company’s aerial surveillance technology raises questions. Police in Baltimore have been conducting aerial surveillance over neighborhoods for months, using a plane with high-tech cameras to investigate crimes. It was a closely guarded secret — until now. CBS News first reported about the camera technology last year, when we visited the Persistent Surveillance Systems’ headquarters. From wide angle cameras mounted on a small plane, the company is able to see roughly 32 square miles — transmitting the images live and instantly archiving them, allowing police to essentially rewind time. In June, that plane was flying over Baltimore watching for signs of unrest the day Officer Ceasar Goodson was found not guilty in Freddie Gray’s death. The police apparently did not publicly disclose that fact until Wednesday.

“The only people that should be concerned in the city of Baltimore are criminals,” said police spokesman T.J. Smith. He defended the technology, which he says led to the arrest of a man wanted for shooting two elderly people in Febuary.

5am – D         Trump vows ‘no amnesty, but we work with’ illegal immigrants. Donald Trump promised there will be “no amnesty” for illegal immigrants during his presidency, even as he continues to ease up on his approach to tackling the issue of how to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Trump was asked during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity” Wednesday night about his initial pledge to deport those in the U.S. illegally and if he’d include an exception for those who have proven to be “a fair citizen.” “No citizenship. Let me go a step further – they’ll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them,” Trump responded.

5am – E         Kabul siege: 12 killed in attack on American University.  (CNN)Twelve people were killed in an attack on a university in Kabul, the Afghan capital, a spokesman for the Chief of Kabul Police tells CNN. Seven students, three policemen and two security guards were killed in the attack on the American University campus, Basir Mujahid, the spokesman said.

6am – A/B/C Question: Should middle-schoolers be forced to walk up to 1.5 miles to school? SILVER SPRING, Md. (ABC7) — A group of passionate parents is attempting to poke holes in a Montgomery County Public Schools policy, which denies bus service to certain students. The policy states that elementary students living less than one mile from school grounds will not get bussed to-or-from class. The distance threshold is set at one-and-a-half miles for middle schoolers, and two miles for high schoolers. Madiaw Diop and his wife have three children in the MCPS system. They live in a basic apartment complex along Glenville Road, approximately one mile from Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. he walk to EMS, which includes crossing busy University Boulevard East, takes roughly 20 minutes door-to-door. In addition to time, Diop says frigid temperatures, oppressive heat, rain and unshoveled sidewalks make the daily trek dangerous.

6am – D         Why 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour. Tackle personal tasks before sunrise; find focus before distractions begin. Most people who wake up at 4 a.m. do it because they have to—farmers, flight attendants, currency traders and postal workers. Others rise before dawn because they want to. Early birds, rejoice! Waking up at 4 a.m. may be the best strategy for increasing work productivity, according to several entrepreneurs and business executives interviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Waking up before most everyone else helps eliminate distractions like social media and the busy chock-a-block of midday, the Journal reported.

6am – E         Elevator fix will close Washington Monument for 9 months. WASHINGTON (AP) — The lone, balky elevator that takes visitors to the top of the 555-foot Washington Monument needs a major renovation that will require closing the landmark for nine months, officials said Wednesday.  The elevator has broken down frequently over the past two years, roughly the period since the monument reopened following an August 2011 earthquake that did major damage to the structure. The monument needed $15 million in repairs and was closed for nearly three years, but the park service did not renovate the elevator during that time.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — BRIAN BLASE — Senior Research Fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University

• BIO: Brian Blase is a Senior Research Fellow focusing on health care policy with the Spending and Budget Initiative at the Mercatus Center. Previously, Brian was with the Senate Republican Policy Committee where he served as a health care policy analyst, and before that worked as senior professional staffer for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  Brian received his Ph.D. from GMU in 2013 in economics, with his dissertation on Medicaid.
• Obamacare Website No Longer Addresses ‘You Can Keep Your Doctor’
• Fail: Expert Says Obamacare Might Be on the Brink of Total Collapse. Remember Bob Laszewski? He’s the health insurance industry expert whose generally accurate and prescient criticisms of Obamacare over the span of several years have largely been vindicated by events. He’s been watching the steady departure of insurers from the law’s failing exchanges (here’s the latest example) with increasing concern, warning that the entire system risks implosion within the next year if the current trajectory isn’t significantly altered.

7am – B         Pew: Americans giving up on God, miracles. Half of Americans who have left their church no longer believe in God, leading a surge of nearly one quarter of the nation who have no affiliation with any religion, according to a new survey. Pew Research Center said Wednesday that 49 percent of what they term “nones” left their church and religion because they “don’t believe.”  Another 20 percent said they don’t like organized religion. Other reasons included “common sense” and a lack of belief in miracles. The survey is the latest from Pew that demonstrates a growing trend in America: more and more people are junking religion and many are giving up on God.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter, The Hill – discussed the  coverage of the Clinton Foundation vs how Trump has been covered.

7am – E         Chelsea Clinton Plans to Stay on Board of Family Foundation. Clinton Health Access Initiative might also continue to accept foreign government and corporate funding.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — GENERAL JACK KEANE – a retired 4 star general,  former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army and serves as the Chairman of the Institute for the Study of War.

• Kabul siege: 12 killed in attack on American University
• Iranian ships harass US destroyer. Four small boats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) harassed a U.S. destroyer Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz during a “high speed intercept,” according to multiple reports Wednesday. Two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the USS Nitze during the incident, behavior that was deemed “unsafe and unprofessional,” the reports said.

8am – B         INTERVIEW — Correspondent SCOTT MCLEAN – in Saletta, Italy today after the deadly earthquake

8am – C         Katie Ledecky throws out first pitch, while Bryce Harper holds her medals. Ledecky Turned Bryce Harper Into A Medal Rack. Katie Ledecky and Bryce Harper walked out to the pitcher’s mound at Nationals Park a few minutes before Wednesday night’s game against the Orioles, and frankly if they had walked right back to the dugout that walk alone would have been plenty noteworthy for D.C. sports fans. But the winner of five medals at the Rio Olympics and the 2015 National League most valuable player had other plans. Scheduled to throw out the first pitch for the third time at Nationals Park, Ledecky first had to unburden herself of the gold and silver medals she wore around her neck. She took off the Nationals batting practice cap she was wearing and handed that to Harper. Then, one by one, she took off the medals and handed those to Harper, too. Then, she fired homeward, a strike (or close to it) straight into the glove of Shawn Kelley, who does not usually catch ceremonial first pitches like that. Ledecky said she practiced throwing with some neighbors, like she did before throwing out first pitches in 2012 and 2014, and “was feeling pretty confident” going into this pitch. Before heading out to the mound with Harper, who she said is her favorite player, she got a tour of the Nationals clubhouse. The players didn’t have any tips for her pitch, however.

8am – D/E     Trump vows ‘no amnesty, but we work with’ illegal immigrants. Donald Trump promised there will be “no amnesty” for illegal immigrants during his presidency, even as he continues to ease up on his approach to tackling the issue of how to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Trump was asked during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity” Wednesday night about his initial pledge to deport those in the U.S. illegally and if he’d include an exception for those who have proven to be “a fair citizen.” “No citizenship. Let me go a step further – they’ll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them,” Trump responded.