AB Stoddard, attorney for Rockville rape suspect Andrew Jezic, Washington Post’s Robert McCartney and Fox’s Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 24, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Health Care Vote – If It Fails, Who Do You Blame?

• Trump team ultimatum: No more talks, time to vote. Washington (CNN) Top White House officials descended on Capitol Hill Thursday night to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s ultimatum to House Republicans: Negotiations on their health care bill are over, and the House will vote Friday. Then, there was this: If the bill doesn’t pass Friday, Trump is ready to move on and Republicans will be “stuck with Obamacare.

5am – D         LONDON NEWS:

• London police identify suspected Westminster attacker as a 52-year-old UK native with a criminal record. London attacker Khalid Masood was a criminal with militant links
• President @realDonaldTrump tweeted his prayers and condolences to the family of Kurt Cochran, the American man killed in London.
• Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 18h18 hours ago: A great American, Kurt Cochran, was killed in the London terror attack. My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends.
• Kurt Cochran was killed in London while celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary. A Utah man celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary in London was among those killed in Wednesday’s attack outside the U.K. Parliament, his family and church said. Kurt Cochran and his wife, Melissa, had stopped in London during a tour of Europe and were planning to return home Thursday, a family spokesman said in a statement. Melissa was seriously injured, the family spokesman, Clint Payne, said in a statement distributed by the Church of Latter Day Saints.
• London mayor shuts down Trump Jr. tweet: I have more important things to do. (CNN) A day after a terror attack in his city left three people dead and as many as 40 wounded, London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he has more important things to do than respond to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. Wednesday, President Trump’s son tweeted, “You have to be kidding me?!” in response Khan’s assertion in 2016 to The Independent newspaper that terror attacks are “part and parcel” of living in a major city. “I’m not going to respond to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.,” Khan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “I’ve been doing far more important things over the last 24 hours.”
• Antwerp police intercept speeding car and thwart ‘attempted terrorist attack’ (CNN )Belgian police intercepted a car that was speeding toward a busy shopping area and refused to stop, authorities said Thursday. The car, registered in France, was driving “at a very high speed” in central Antwerp, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said. French President Francois Hollande called the incident “an attempted terrorist attack.” Authorities eventually managed to stop the 39-year-old French driver and detained him. Anouk Leemans saw police make the arrest. “The police chased the man and arrested him calmly,” she told CNN via the messaging app WhatsApp. “A crowd quickly gathered but the police were keeping everyone calm.” Leemans said authorities took photos inside and around the car after a bomb robot searched it.

5am – E         Americans Are Dying With an Average of $62K of Debt. (Credit.com)

You’re probably going to die with some debt to your name. Most people do. In fact, 73% of consumers had outstanding debt when they were reported as dead, according to December 2016 data provided to Credit.com by credit bureau Experian. Those consumers carried an average total balance of $61,554, including mortgage debt. Without home loans, the average balance was $12,875. The data is based on Experian’s FileOne database, which includes 220 million consumers. (There are about 242 million adults in the U.S., according to 2015 estimates from the Census Bureau.) Among the 73% of consumers who had debt when they died, about 68% had credit card balances. The next most common kind of debt was mortgage debt (37%), followed by auto loans (25%), personal loans (12%) and student loans (6%). These were the average unpaid balances: credit cards, $4,531; auto loans, $17,111; personal loans, $14,793; and student loans, $25,391. That’s a lot of debt, and it doesn’t just disappear when someone dies. For the most part, your debt dies with you, but that doesn’t mean it won’t affect the people you leave behind.

6am – A         ROCKVILLE NEWS:

• In Wake of Rockville Rape, School Superintendent Accuses Parents of Racism. (Katie Pavlich/Town Hall) — In the wake of an alleged brutal rape at Rockville High School in Maryland by two illegal aliens last week, Montgomery County Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith is accusing parents of racism and xenophobia. He also claims threats are being made against students and schools.  “While I know this tragic incident has become part of a national political debate, I want to remind community members that the lives of real students have been forever affected,” Smith sent in an email Thursday morning. “While many have chosen to engage civilly in the conversation, far too many have crossed the line with racist, xenophobic calls and emails. MCPS is working with law enforcement to identify those who are making threats toward our students and schools. This behavior will not be tolerated in our community.”
• Attorney for suspect in Maryland school rape case says client is wrongly accused. An alleged rape at a Maryland high school is now part of the immigration debate. Henry Sanchez Milian, one of two suspects charged in the rape of a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at a Maryland high school did not do what he is accused of, his defense attorney said Wednesday. “Based on everything we know, we think he’s innocent,” said Andrew Jezic, who has been retained by Sanchez Milian’s family. “This appears to have been a consensual encounter.” Jezic said his 18-year-old client is confident he will be exonerated. An arrest warrant filed against Sanchez Milian and signed by a police detective — as well as a similar warrant against a co-defendant, Jose Montano, 17, who has been charged as an adult — describe a brutal series of sexual assaults inside a bathroom stall at Rockville High School on Thursday morning by the suspects, both 9th graders at the school.
• Maryland county’s count suggests noncitizens voting across U.S. (Washington Times) — Lawsuit on behalf of Marylanders compared jury pools. The debate over noncitizens voting was a hot topic a few years ago in Frederick County, a prosperous Maryland suburb wedged between Washington’s urban metropolis and the state’s rural western gateway to the rest of America. Conservative activists went to court to show that noncitizens were registering fraudulently to vote. A court employee met their request by turning over pages of residents’ names disqualified from jury duty because of alien status. When those lists were compared with voting records for just three years — 2007, 2008 and 2011 — nearly 180 noncitizens were found to have registered to vote. Of those, 63 had voted, some in multiple elections. The 180 registered votes came from 1,400 disqualified noncitizens in those three years, a rate of 12.8 percent. The issue of noncitizen voters has taken on national importance. President Trump, who said 3 million or so voted illegally in November, plans to name a federal task force to investigate. Frederick County’s numbers offer a limited snapshot from a handful of jury pools, but they indicate that noncitizens are registered to vote and are casting ballots in states, which administer federal, state and local elections. “Obviously, there are people on the voting rolls who have no business being on the voter rolls,” said conservative activist Daniel M. Gray, a lawyer who filed the lawsuit. “What needs to be determined is how extensive is this. How many noncitizens weren’t summoned for jury duty and went ahead and voted?”

6am – B/C     METRO NEWS:

• MCCARTNEY: Virginia Gov. McAuliffe taps Ray LaHood to head panel to study Metro. The Washington region took a step toward building a consensus on how to fix Metro on Thursday as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) tapped former S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood to head an independent panel to study the system’s governance and long-term financial needs.

• It’s official: Metro raising fares, cutting service. WASHINGTON — Metro fares will rise this summer as hours are cut and rush-hour train schedules are reduced. The Metro Board gave final approval Thursday to a budget that raises rush-hour rail fares and weekday parking fees by a dime, off-peak rail fares by a quarter, and regular and express bus fares by a quarter. Airport bus fares will rise to $7.50 when the changes take effect around July 1.  At rush hour, trains will be scheduled every eight minutes at the ends of each line rather than the every six minutes they are scheduled today. Metro often fails to meet that goal. The rail system’s hours will also be cut back every day of the week — closing at 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and only running from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday.
• Metro union boss: Contract talks have broken down. WASHINGTON — The president of Metro’s largest union said Thursday that contract talks with the agency have “broken down,” nearly nine months after the previous contract expired. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 President Jackie Jeter said the negotiations broke down last week. “That means that we’re not talking any more,” Jeter said. She plans to share the current status of the negotiations with members of the union, who hold more than half of all Metro jobs. Jeter would not say whether the union is preparing to move from negotiations to binding arbitration. She has previously described talks as stalled at other stages in the process. Metro and the union are required to go to binding arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached, in exchange for a provision that bars a union strike.

6am – D/E     Self-marriage is marriage by a person to oneself. It is known as a commitment that values self-love, and self-compassion . Supporters of the practice argue that it leads to a happier life. The idea of such a ceremony is also described in the book Quirkyalone: a manifesto for uncompromising romantics by Sasha Cagen.

• Sologomy: Woman who helps others self-marry reveal what takes place in the ceremonies. (The Independent) — Dominique, who married herself in 2011 and wears a nose ring as a symbol of her sologamy, talks to The Independent about how she helps other women undergoing the same commitment. Over the past few years, there has been a rise in ‘self-marriage’. This being quite as literal as it sounds – making a commitment to  a deep, meaningful relationship with just yourself. Self-marriage, otherwise known as sologamy, is not legally recognised but has been on a steady rise in recent years. In many cases, it can mirror traditional weddings with various case studies and news stories showing women in wedding dresses stood alongside their bridesmaids and wearing a wedding ring. Dominique, from California, runs a self-marriage ceremonies website which assists people who wish to make that commitment to themselves. She says the community of people willing to do so is growing She held her own ceremony in 2011, aged 22, after “practicing self-love for many years”, where she lit candles in her bedroom and vowed to be “kind and compassionate to myself, especially when I make mistakes”. Prior to this, she travelled across India for six months to connect with her own self-love after dedicating her career and studies to researching the subject.

6am – F         Critter News: Washington Post’s Pet Crab:

• Ben Nuckols‏ @APBenNuckols 12h12 hours ago: Folks at the Washington Post didn’t want to kill and eat a crab. Instead, they slowly tortured it to death.
• Washington Post employees rallied to save a crab. We named her Old Bae. Now we mourn. (Washington Post) — Over a span of six hours, starting when she was first introduced to The Washington Post newsroom in a Slack channel Tuesday afternoon, the blue crab evolved from a mere crustacean into an immortal. It all started in our #leftovers Slack channel, which is normally reserved for announcements about food that’s up for grabs to the fastest takers. (If you’ve never heard of Slack: It’s an online communication program akin to instant messenger that facilitates communication among members, groups or large teams.) On Tuesday, a Post food editor wrote in the channel that a live crab was available in The Post’s in-house test kitchen, known as the Food Lab. The crab had been purchased, along with five others — all females, according to their purveyor — for a photo shoot for an upcoming spring issue of the paper’s Food section. Whether this blue crab became a pet or a meal was up to the person who took it. Yet there was little debate among this group of usually hungry employees: Most in the group wanted the crab to live.  It didn’t take long for a name to be chosen. A pro-eating colleague mentioned Old Bay, a blend of spices and herbs produced in the Chesapeake Bay region and originally meant to season crab. Why not Old Bae? It was a perfect play on words melding the seasoning brand and “bae,” a slang term of endearment that some say stands for “before anyone else” and typically refers to a significant other or love interest. And thus the crab became a beloved pet. The hashtags #LetHerLive, #ShePersisted and #FreeOldBae were wielded in her honor. A GoFundMe campaign, to raise money to purchase a tank, was discussed. Now, hours later, Parker was struggling to keep Old Bae alive. She placed the crab in a box with damp paper towels, then in a fish bowl to see whether the water would revive her. Nothing worked. Five hours after the crab’s introduction to the newsroom, Parker officially announced her passing. On Thursday, the story of Old Bae reached the top of the paper’s masthead. During a town hall meeting with staff, Executive Editor Martin Baron read aloud three employee-submitted questions. The last was this: “Can we have a moment of silence for #OldBae, our short-lived newsroom crab mascot?” #RIPOldBae. Gone, but not forgotten.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — A.B. STODDARD – Associate Editor and columnist at RealClearPolitics

• Trump team ultimatum: No more talks, time to vote. Washington (CNN) Top White House officials descended on Capitol Hill Thursday night to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s ultimatum to House Republicans: Negotiations on their health care bill are over, and the House will vote Friday.

• Risky House healthcare vote to test Trump’s negotiating skills.  By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON / U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday faces the first concrete test of how well the deal-making skills he honed in his real estate business will translate on Capitol Hill in a high-stakes vote on new Republican health care legislation. The House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill to replace Obamacare late on Friday afternoon.     

7am – B/C     Calls on the health care vote

7am – D         INTERVIEW — ANDREW JEZIC — Maryland Criminal Lawyer and attorney for Henry Sanchez Milian, one of two suspects charged in the rape of a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at Rockville high school

• Attorney for suspect in Maryland school rape case says client is wrongly accused
• The Maryland Age of Consent is 16 years old. Like most states, there are some situations in Maryland where people under the age of consent may legally have sex, as long as there is only a small age difference between them. In Maryland, persons aged between 14 and 16 may consent to sex as long as the other partner is not more than 4 years older.

7am – E         NUNES NEWS:

• Potential ‘smoking gun’ showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says. (James Rosen/Fox News) — Republican congressional investigators expect a potential “smoking gun” establishing that the Obama administration spied on the Trump transition team, and possibly the president-elect himself, will be produced to the House Intelligence Committee this week, a source told Fox News. Classified intelligence showing incidental collection of Trump team communications, purportedly seen by committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and described by him in vague terms at a bombshell Wednesday afternoon news conference, came from multiple sources, Capitol Hill sources told Fox News. The intelligence corroborated information about surveillance of the Trump team that was known to Nunes, sources said, even before President Trump accused his predecessor of having wiretappedhim in a series of now-infamous tweets posted on March 4. The intelligence is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump, according to sources. The key to that conclusion is the unmasking of selected U.S. persons whose names appeared in the intelligence, the sources said, adding that the paper trail leaves no other plausible purpose for the unmasking other than to damage the incoming Trump administration.

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes apologized to committee members Thursday for not informing them of the information he provided to President Trump.
• WH: Media Obsessed With Process Instead of Substance Regarding Nunes Intel Revelation.  (CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer expressed frustration Thursday with the media’s “obsession with the process” surrounding House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) notifying the White House that the intelligence community “incidentally collected” information on Trump transition team members instead of questioning the “substance” of the revelation. “There seems to be this obsession with the process: how did he get here, when did he go, what was the reaction? At some point, there should be a concern about the substance. That’s a very serious revelation that he’s made about what happened during the 2016 election with respect to our side and some of the things that happened,” Spicer said.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ROBERT MCCARTNEY — The Washington Post’s senior regional correspondent, covering politics and policy in the greater Washington, D.C. region

• METRO NEWS:
• MCCARTNEY:  Virginia Gov. McAuliffe taps Ray LaHood to head panel to study Metro. The Washington region took a step toward building a consensus on how to fix Metro on Thursday as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) tapped former U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood to head an independent panel to study the system’s governance and long-term financial needs.
• It’s official: Metro raising fares, cutting service. WASHINGTON — Metro fares will rise this summer as hours are cut and rush-hour train schedules are reduced. The Metro Board gave final approval Thursday to a budget that raises rush-hour rail fares and weekday parking fees by a dime, off-peak rail fares by a quarter, and regular and express bus fares by a quarter. Airport bus fares will rise to $7.50 when the changes take effect around July 1.  At rush hour, trains will be scheduled every eight minutes at the ends of each line rather than the every six minutes they are scheduled today. Metro often fails to meet that goal. The rail system’s hours will also be cut back every day of the week — closing at 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and only running from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday.
• Walking Up Moving Escalators Causes Damage, DC Commuters Told. Escalator riders should stand on both the left and right, Paul Wiedefeld said. Walk to the left, stand to the right? Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said please don’t. The head of Washington’s Metro system said Wednesday that the custom of standing on the right side of a Metro escalator to clear the way for people to walk on the left damages escalators. “We do not promote, obviously, the walking on the left. These are very sensitive pieces of equipment,” he said as officials unveiled a new escalator at the Bethesda station. It’s best for escalators when riders stand on both sides of the steps, Wiedefeld said. He seemed resigned to the notion that commuters will continue to follow widespread escalator etiquette.

8am – B         Building News:

• Now THAT’S loopy! Behold The Big Bend – the incredible U-shaped New York skyscraper dubbed the ‘longest building in the world’ is unveiled. (Daily Mail) — The race to build the world’s most spectacular skyscraper has reached new heights – and taken a turn in direction. Designs for ‘The Big Bend’, a slender tower that would transform Manhattan’s skyline, have been unveiled. Described as the ‘longest building in the world’, the project’s concept drawings reveal a skyscraper reaching an apex then curving back down. And featuring an elevator system that can travel in curves, horizontally and in loops. Stretching 4,000ft-long, the glass-lined tower would need to feature an elevator that goes far beyond all current designs. The team explained: ‘What was once considered to be the greatest challenge in elevator history, is finally becoming reality: the elevator that can travel in curves, horizontally and in continuous loops.  ‘The innovative track changing system allows for the horizontal connection of two shafts on the top and bottom to create a continuous loop.’
• Trump giving the green light to Keystone XL pipeline Obama rejected. The Trump administration gave the Keystone XL pipeline its key federal permit Friday, clearing a major hurdle for the project that former President Barack Obama rejected in 2015. The State Department announced Friday morning that its under secretary for political affairs, Tom Shannon, issued the permit, two months after President Trump signed a memorandum to revive the project after Obama’s rejection. “In making his determination that issuance of this permit would serve the national interest, the under secretary considered a range of factors, including but not limited to foreign policy; energy security; environmental, cultural, and economic impacts; and compliance with applicable law and policy,” State said.
• Border Patrol union: US-Mexico border wall needed only in ‘strategic locations.’ Companies Are Now Bidding for Contracts to Build Trump’s Border Wall. (Fox News) — Companies are now submitting proposals to construct President Trump’s promised wall along the Mexican border.  About 500 companies signed up to bid and designs are due to the Department of Homeland Security by next week, William La Jeunesse reported.  The White House has released preliminary guidelines for the wall, which must be 30 feet high while looking imposing from the Mexican side and aesthetically pleasing from the U.S.

8am – C         Trump’s Washington hotel poses no conflict of interest, agency finds. (Reuters) — The Trump International Hotel in Washington is not in violation of federal conflict-of-interest rules that bar elected officials from taking part in a lease of federal property, the U.S. General Services Administration said on Thursday. Critics argued that the luxury hotel housed in the historic Old Post Office a few blocks from the White House was a conflict of interest for Republican President Donald Trump because he is both landlord and tenant of the building. Lawyers for the hotel said the claim had no merit. Democratic lawmakers asked the GSA, which oversees federal property, to clarify the status of the lease arrangement. “We would like to thank the GSA for their diligent review of this matter,” Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said in an email. In January, Trump said he would maintain ownership of his global business empire, but hand control to his two oldest sons while president. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., subsequently took the reins of the Washington hotel. In a letter from GSA contracting officer Kevin Terry to Donald Trump Jr., the agency said the issue had been resolved by the younger Trump taking over as head of the company that runs the hotel and by changes to its internal operating agreement.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BRET BAIER – Anchor of Special Report on Fox News Channel

• HEALTH CARE VOTE: Trump team ultimatum: No more talks, time to vote. Washington (CNN) Top White House officials descended on Capitol Hill Thursday night to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s ultimatum to House Republicans: Negotiations on their health care bill are over, and the House will vote Friday. Then, there was this: If the bill doesn’t pass Friday, Trump is ready to move on and Republicans will be “stuck with Obamacare.
• ROCKVILLE: >> Special Report and particularly Doug McKelway have been all over the Rockville rape case
• Potential ‘smoking gun’ showing Obama administration spied on Trump team, source says. (James Rosen/Fox News) — Republican congressional investigators expect a potential “smoking gun” establishing that the Obama administration spied on the Trump transition team, and possibly the president-elect himself, will be produced to the House Intelligence Committee this week, a source told Fox News.

8am – E         President Trump’s Tweets This Morning:

• Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump 20m20 minutes ago: The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!
• Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump 27m27 minutes ago: After seven horrible years of ObamaCare (skyrocketing premiums & deductibles, bad healthcare), this is finally your chance for a great plan!