Sen. Rand Paul, AAA’s John Townsend, Trevor Matich, DC Metro Chair Jack Evans and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 10, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   DC issued ‘unparalleled’ number of traffic tickets last year. WASHINGTON — The number of photo-enforced tickets given to drivers in the District skyrocketed during the last fiscal year to more than 1.1 million, according to new figures released Thursday by AAA Mid-Atlantic. There were 1,101,769 photo-enforced tickets — including speed, red-light and stop-sign camera tickets — handed out in D.C. during the 2016 fiscal year. That marks a massive year-over-year increase of nearly 70 percent. The District’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. “The bulk of those tickets were speed camera tickets,” said AAA spokesman John Townsend. “We estimate that the District issued more than one million speed camera tickets, the highest total on a yearly basis in the District’s history.” The spike in photo-enforced citations helped push the number of overall tickets in the nation’s capital to an all-time high. “The District issued an unparalleled number of tickets last year,” Townsend said. Over the course of the year, drivers received a total of 2,760,482 citations. Those tickets totaled $300 million

5am – D         REDSKINS IN TURMOIL:

• Scot McCloughan fired as Redskins’ general manager after two years.
• Report: Kirk Cousins requested to be traded.
• Kirk Cousins plans to sign franchise tender soon
• DeSean Jackson agrees to three-year deal with Bucs
• Pierre Garcon, 49ers Agree to 5-Year Contract

5am – E         CRITTER NEWS:

• Radioactive wild boars roaming towns deserted after the Fukushima nuclear disaster are rounded up and killed amid fears they will attack
• Ted Cruz tweeted a picture of his kids and a toy giraffe posing with President Trump. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and his gorgeous family attended dinner at the White House on Wednesday evening and posted a picture on Twitter the following morning of his two daughters standing beside President Trump at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. “Our family had dinner w the President & First Lady, who were warm & gracious. Catherine brought Joe—her kindergarten class stuffed giraffe!”, Cruz wrote. He stated for reporters yesterday that he was keen to the idea to mention Obamacare at the dinner. “It is principally a social dinner, but I am sure the conversation will turn to the repeal of Obamacare,” the lawmaker stated.
• SHARK IN A SHOPPING CART? Store employee reports unusual catch. ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. –  Authorities are mystified as to why a 5-foot-long dead shark was left in the parking lot of a northeast Florida Wal-Mart just days before another dead shark was found nearby. The St. Augustine Record reports St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the store parking lot last week after the shark was found in a shopping cart. Deputies talked to the owner of an RV parked nearby and learned that the RV owner had woken to find the shark on his vehicle’s hood. The owner said he then put it in the cart. The sheriff’s office says days later they were called to driveway in Vilano Beach and found another dead shark. The deputies called in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to dispose of the sharks.
• Man stole car in Dunedin with nine parrots in back seat, Sheriff’s Office says. The man, described as white and about 30 years old, jumped into a 2016 Chevrolet Equinox about 6:45 p.m. on March 2 while the driver was inside Bauser’s, a bar at 520 Douglas Ave. in Dunedin, according to deputies. The driver left the car running and unlocked with nine baby parrots in the backseat while he was inside. A customer told him someone drove away in his car. A surveillance video showed the thief sitting on the patio outside the bar, walking over to the car, then driving away. The next day, Polk County sheriff’s deputies found the car in the Lakeland area. Six of the parrots were recovered by the Lakeland Police Department on March 7. It is unclear what happened to the other three, said Pinellas Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Cpl. Lorraine Hinson. The man is described as 6-feet-4 with a medium build, short blond hair and a light beard. He was wearing a white tank top, jeans and a black backpack.

6am – A         INTERVIEW – SENATOR RAND PAUL – discussed his opposition to the current GOP proposal to replace ObamaCare.

6am – B         California lawmakers want to repeal HIV criminalization laws. (AP) — Exposing a person to HIV is treated more seriously under California law than infecting someone with any other communicable disease, a policy some lawmakers say is a relic of the decades-old AIDS scare that unfairly punishes HIV-positive people based on outdated science. Several lawmakers are promoting a bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, that would make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV, the virus that causes the immune system-weakening disease AIDS. The change would treat HIV like other communicable diseases under California law. Under current law, if a person who knows they are infected with HIV has unprotected sex without telling their partner they have the virus, they can be convicted of a felony and face years of jail time. Intentional transmission of any other communicable disease, even a potentially deadly condition like hepatitis, is a misdemeanor.

6am – C         Malicious Malik: Attention-seeking half-brother of Obama posts image of ex-president’s ‘Kenyan birth certificate’ while declaring his support for Trump in series of bizarre and bitter tweets. (Daily Mail) — Barack Obama is no longer president, but the birther movement alleging that he was born abroad still lives – thanks to his half-brother. Malik Obama tweeted a copy of what he claims is a valid birth certificate proving that his half-brother was born in Mombasa, Kenya. The ‘birth certificate’ bears the letterhead of the ‘Coast Province General Hospital’ in Mombasa. In 2009, a man by the name of Lucas Smith offered the document for sale on eBay. The website eventually removed the page because it has a policy of barring its users from selling purported government documents. The sex of the baby is male, and the date of birth is listed as August 4, 1961, which is the former president’s genuine birthday. The ‘document’ also lists the names of Obama’s parents, Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama (née Dunham). The issue of Obama’s birth as well as his religion have been frequently discussed matters within right-wing circles and conspiracy theorists. The unfounded rumors of Obama’s country of origin were largely meant to call into question the legitimacy of his presidency. The US Constitution does not permit citizens who were born abroad to attain the presidency.

6am – D/E     DC restaurant owners sue over Trump hotel, alleging unfair competition. WASHINGTON — A D.C. restaurant is suing President Donald Trump, saying the Trump International Hotel, which sits just blocks from the White House, represents unfair competition for other businesses in the District. The owners of Cork Wine Bar, in the Logan Circle area, filed the lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court this week against Trump and the company Trump Old Post Office LLC, which operates the hotel. “This is a claim by a local business who is being competed with unfairly by another local business,” said attorney Scott Rome. “That other local business just happens to be owned by the president.” Khalid Pitts and Diane Gross insist their suit was not politically motivated. They say the hotel constitutes unfair competition because foreign dignitaries, members of Congress, business leaders and others who might want to curry favor with the president would clearly choose to spend money at the business affiliated with President Trump over other businesses in the area. “President Trump’s name and presence give his hotel a big leg up,” added Pitts. “We have all seen the president and members of his team encourage people to go there using the power of his office.”

Clinton Donor, DC Wine Bar Owner Sues Trump, Complains Of Unfair Competition From Hotel. (Daily Caller) — The owners of the Washington, D.C., establishment Cork Wine Bar are suing President Donald Trump and the new Trump International Hotel, alleging that Trump is unfairly hurting their business. Cork Wine Bar offers 200 international wines to its customers, but now the owners Khalid Pitts and Diane Gross, with the help of pro-bono lawyers, are seeking to prevent the operation of Trump’s D.C. hotel while Trump remains in control of it, The Washington Post reports. Interestingly, the major players behind the suit are Democratic political activists and donors. According to FEC data, Khalid Pitts is a Clinton donor and contributed $500 to her election effort in 2015, while he worked for the Sierra Club. Both Pitts and Gross have been active in liberal political causes. Pitts also served as a campaign director for the Service Employees International Union. Gross is a former civil rights lawyer.

6am – F         Foreign visitors are barred from the White House: Non-US citizens are told they CAN’T arrange tours of the President’s home. (Daily Mail) — Only days after President Trump reopened the White House to visitors, British and other foreign tourists in Washington have been told they are not welcome in Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House opened to tours for the first time since the inauguration this week but foreign visitors were told to contact their embassies in Washington to apply for a visit. But several foreign embassies have said they have been told by the State Department that non-US individuals are not currently allowed around the presidential residency.  Unlike Trump’s travel ban on six predominantly Muslim countries, the nations whose citizens are not allowed in the White House include Britain, Australia, Canada and Denmark.  Julian Eccles, a British tourist who visited the White House with his eldest son in 2009, told The Independent he was disappointed not to be able to return on a trip with his younger son later this year. He said: ‘There seems to be a rupture in White House-State Department relations here. Perhaps I should call Nigel Farage.’ Farage, the former leader of Britain’s UKIP party and a friend of Trump’s, had touted himself as a possible British ambassador. The Danish Embassy said: ‘Although the White House’s website directs foreign nationals to contact their embassy to arrange a tour, we have been instructed by the US Department of State that such tours are not possible at the present time. ‘We will of course update this website as soon as the Department of State enables us to arrange tours of the White House again.’

7am – A/B/C             INTERVIEW — JOHN TOWNSEND – AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman

• DC issued ‘unparalleled’ number of traffic tickets last year. WASHINGTON — The number of photo-enforced tickets given to drivers in the District skyrocketed during the last fiscal year to more than 1.1 million, according to new figures released Thursday by AAA Mid-Atlantic. There were 1,101,769 photo-enforced tickets — including speed, red-light and stop-sign camera tickets — handed out in D.C. during the 2016 fiscal year. That marks a massive year-over-year increase of nearly 70 percent. The District’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. “The bulk of those tickets were speed camera tickets,” said AAA spokesman John Townsend. “We estimate that the District issued more than one million speed camera tickets, the highest total on a yearly basis in the District’s history.” The spike in photo-enforced citations helped push the number of overall tickets in the nation’s capital to an all-time high. “The District issued an unparalleled number of tickets last year,” Townsend said. Over the course of the year, drivers received a total of 2,760,482 citations. Those tickets totaled $300 million

7am – D         Entertainment News:

• Fox Orders Reality Series ‘You The Jury,’ Where Viewers Decide Real Civil Cases. (The Wrap) — “You The Jury” debuts Friday, April 7 at 9/8c on Fox. Jeanine Pirro will host show; afterward, America text-messages a binding verdict. So it’s come to this: Fox has ordered unscripted series “You The Jury,” on which America will decide the outcome of real civil cases. Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro will host the reality show, which premieres Friday, April 7 at 9/8c on Fox. She’ll be joined by six attorneys: Jose Baez, Benjamin Crump, Joseph Tacopina, Areva Martin, Mike Cavalluzzi and Charla Aldous. Former judge of the Superior Court of California LaDoris Cordell will preside over the whole thing. Here’s how it works. After a case has been presented during the East coast and Central time zone broadcast, viewers get about five minutes to vote via text and the Fox Now App. The binding legal decision will be revealed at the very end of the episode. However, when the West Coast votes, if the cumulative votes (East/Central and West coast/Mountain time zone combined) lead to a different verdict, the original verdict will be overturned as the final outcome of the case.
• Let the (real-life) Hunger Games Begin! ‘Professional Blonde’, actress and glamorous swimming coach among shortlist of contestants for controversial Siberian TV show where rape and murder will not be stopped. (Daily Mail) — A glamorous swimming coach, a Russian actress, and a ‘professional blonde’ from the Arctic are among the contestants taking part in a controversial real-life Hunger Games-style TV show. The organisers of the reality programme, filmed on a remote Siberian island, say they will not intervene to stop rape and murder, as the series got the go ahead to start in July. Contestants armed with only knives will have to fight bears, wolves and endure vicious gnats during a nine month hell on the Ob River, it was announced today. Temperatures will range between plus 35C in summer and minus 50C in winter, while potential gamers – from a secret serviceman to an estate agent – will have only a single set of cold weather clothes to survive the intense frost. The ‘anything goes’ show will be filmed on 2,000 fixed cameras and broadcast live 24/7 on the web in various languages including English. Organisers admitted today that they will not intervene to stop even rape or murder, but stressed participants will be liable to the full force of the Russian law for criminal offences.
• Meet J-Rod! Jennifer Lopez Is Dating Alex Rodriguez – but She’s Cautious About His ‘Ladies Man’ History. The “On the Floor” singer, 47, is dating former MLB star Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, a source confirms to PEOPLE. “They have been dating for a few weeks,” the source said. “She seems excited,” a source close to Lopez told PEOPLE. “He has been around her family and she really likes that he is a dad. She is aware, though, that he is a ladies’ man too and is being cautious. For now, it’s just fun. She is single and enjoys dating.”
• Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are back from the brink of divorce, sources tell PEOPLE. Though the actors, both 44 — who announced their separation back in June 2015 — aren’t back together, they have decided to keep working on their marriage after going through a recent rough patch that nearly led to a permanent split. “Jen has called off the divorce,” a source close to Garner tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. “She really wants to work things out with Ben. They are giving things another try.” But a source close to the couple says it was a decision they both made: “There is always a chance of reconciliation. They love each other. They also really, really love their kids, and those kids love their parents.”
• Report: Arnold Schwarzenegger Considering Senate Bid. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly considering getting back into politics. The actor-turned-politician-turned-reality TV host might throw his hat in the ring for Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein’s seat, who is up for reelection in 2018. Schwarzenegger spokesman Daniel Ketchell told Politico that the former governor hasn’t ruled out the possibility of seeking a seat in the upper chamber. “Right now Gov. Schwarzenegger’s focus is on using his platform to bring some sensibility and coherency to Washington by fighting for redistricting reform, like we did in California,’’ Ketchell told the publication. “We are keeping all of our options open as far as how we can accomplish that.” Schwarzenegger, a registered Republican, served as the governor of the Golden State from 2003 to 2011, having left office with a 23 percent approval rating in the traditionally left-leaning state.

7am – E         INTERVIEW – SENATOR RAND PAUL – discussed his opposition to the current GOP proposal to replace ObamaCare.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – Former Redskins elite long snapper, WMAL’s Redskins analyst and Comcast SportsNet co-host

• Scot McCloughan fired as Redskins’ general manager after two years.
• Report: Kirk Cousins requested to be traded.
• Kirk Cousins plans to sign franchise tender soon
• DeSean Jackson agrees to three-year deal with Bucs
• Pierre Garcon, 49ers Agree to 5-Year Contract

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – JACK EVANS – DC COUNCILMEMBER AND DC METRO BOARD CHAIRMAN

• Jack Evans Represents Ward 2 of Washington, D.C. since 1991, Evans is the D.C. Council’s longest serving lawmaker and serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
• Metro Board Approves Fare Hikes, Service Cuts Effective July 1 To Bridge Budget Gap.  Despite already plummeting ridership, Metro’s board on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a package of fare hikes and rail and bus service cuts. Final approval of the austerity budget, little more than a formality, is expected on March 23. The changes will take effect July 1. Base rail fares will go up 10 cents for rush hour and 25 cents for off-peak travel times. The maximum rail fare will reach $6. Bus fares are increasing by 25 cents to $2, but the weekly bus-only pass will remain at $17.50, a break for low income commuters.   

8am – D         INTERVIEW — BRET BAIER – Anchor of SPECIAL REPORT on Fox News Channel and author of new book “Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission”

• Thoughts on the GOP in-fighting over ObamaCare replacement
• Thoughts on the coverage of “wiretapping” Trump Tower
• JOBS REPORT — US adds 235K jobs, unemployment rate falls to 4.7 pct.
• EARLIER THIS WEEK: US private sector created 298K jobs in Feb. vs. 190K est.: ADP.

8am – E         College kids are using student loans for wild spring break trips. (NY Post) — A growing number of students, it seems, will use their student loans to fund their upcoming fun-in-the-sun spring breaks. Roughly 30 percent of US students will tap into their growing pile of college debt to pay for their weeklong frolic, a survey from LendEDU revealed. That’s up from last year, when a separate survey, conducted by Google Consumer Surveys on behalf of Student Loan Hero, found that about 20 percent of students spent their loan cash on dining out, entertainment and spring breaks. While using student loan cash for booze, beer pong and sunblock is not illegal, few experts find it wise. “Students should minimize their borrowing during their college years and live a sparse lifestyle — but no one wants to hear that when their fraternity brothers or sorority sisters are packing up to Cabo for the week,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst of Bankrate.com. “It’s like putting spring break on a credit card, but this one is subsidized by taxpayers,” McBride added. The average college student graduates with $28,000 in loans. The default rate on those loans is 11.8 percent, according to LendEDU.