ACU’s Matt Schlapp and VA GOP’s John Whitbeck joined WMAL on Thursday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   Internet Privacy:

• Outrage grows over Congress’ Internet privacy vote. (CNN) — The Republican-led Congress has stirred the online hornet’s nest. Outrage is growing at Republicans following a controversial vote Tuesday to repeal Internet privacy protections that were approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the final days of the Obama administration. Privacy advocates, consumer groups and the tech community are all attacking the decision. It was quickly panned by both the editorial board of The New York Times and by commenters on conservative media outlet Breitbart News. “This is one of very few Obama-era regulations that should have stayed,” one commenter wrote on Breitbart Tuesday night. Another responded: “totally agreed! this is an attack against freedom.” The rules, which had not yet gone into effect, would have required Internet service providers to get your permission before collecting and sharing your data. The providers have data on your web browsing history, app usage and geo-location. Providers would also have been required to notify customers about the types of information collected and shared.
• White House says Trump to sign broadband privacy repeal. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump plans to sign a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules as a bigger fight looms over rules governing the openness of the internet, the White House said on Wednesday. Republicans in Congress on Tuesday narrowly passed the repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections of privacy advocates. The fight over privacy sets the stage for an even larger battle later this year over Republican plans to overturn the net neutrality provisions adopted by the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2015. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know when Trump would sign the bill. The privacy bill would repeal regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc.

5am – D         Did former Obama aide Evelyn Farkas just admit that Trump’s staff was spied on? (Twitchy) — Bombshell? Evelyn Farkas, who left her position as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia in the Obama White House in 2015, was on “Morning Joe” earlier this week where she talked about her personal knowledge of Obama national security officials rushing to preserve as much intelligence as they could before Trump took office and directed that information to Congress.

5am – E         IMMIGRATION NEWS:

• BREAKING LAST NIGHT: Hawaii judge places indefinite hold on Trump travel ban targeting Muslim countries
• Seattle files lawsuit over Trump administration’s threat to withhold funds to “sanctuary cities”
• Mayors want answers on the Trump administration’s “sanctuary city” policies
• Miller: “Maryland Trust Act” Won’t Pass Senate
• Interior Secretary Zinke says the Mexico border wall might not fully be a ‘physical wall’
• RECORD IMMMIGRATION: The legal and illegal population of foreign-born immigrants living in America will break a 100-year-old record in just six years — and will continue to smash records for the rest of the century, according to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
• Illegals crossing are becoming more violent and are attacking Border Patrol agents

6am – A/B/C Restaurant bans children under 5. MOORESVILLE, NC (KTRK) — An upscale Italian restaurant has earned strong reactions after it began banning young children. The owner cited misbehaving or crying children as enough of a disruption in the restaurant to warrant the ban. “Sometimes the children become rowdy, and some of our other guests, it has made them upset because the parents don’t do the right thing of taking the child out,” said manager Michael Mills. With its chandeliers, piano music and candlelight, Mills said the restaurant is trying to offer a fine dining experience. The Internet had strong reactions – with some people on social media leaving reviews for the restaurant supporting the policy and expressing frustration over dining interrupted by small children and inattentive parents, while others said it was discriminatory.

6am – D         Sean Spicer gives the first question to April Ryan, one day after their tense exchange. (The Hill) – American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan, who was told by White House press secretary Sean Spicer to “stop shaking your head” during a Tuesday briefing, said she was shocked by the public response to incident. But she told CNN that Wednesday’s press briefing marked a “reset” with Spicer. “I took it in. It was what it was, and I went home — I didn’t get home until very late last night,” she said Wednesday on CNN. “And then someone had to tell me that Hillary Clinton, former Secretary Hillary Clinton, had spoken about me, and I was in shock.” Ryan became the target of Spicer’s ire on Tuesday after she pushed the press secretary on ongoing questions about federal investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. “April, hold on, it seems like you’re hell-bent on trying to make sure that whatever image you want to tell about this White House stays,” Spicer told Ryan during his daily briefing. “I’m sorry, please stop shaking your head again,” he added.

6am – E         IVANKA’S NEW GIG:

• Ivanka Trump is officially becoming a White House employee.  Ivanka Trump is changing course and will become a government employee in the coming days, a White House official told CNN Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter will be an unpaid employee working in the West Wing.
• Dem senators demand details from ethics office on Ivanka Trump’s role in White House. A pair of Senate Democrats is asking the government’s top ethics watchdog to hand over details on how Ivanka Trump is avoiding ethical and financial conflicts of interest. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) sent a letter to the Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday saying that her “increasing, albeit unspecified, White House role … [has] resulted in substantial confusion.”

6am – F         Jeff Bezos Is Now the World’s Second Richest Person. (Bloomberg) – Jeff Bezos has leapt past Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest person. Bezos, 53, added $1.5 billion to his fortune as Amazon.com Inc. rose $18.32 on Wednesday, the day after the e-commerce giant said it plans to buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com.  Bezos has a net worth of $75.6 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, $700 million more than Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Buffett and $1.3 billion above Ortega, the founder of Inditex S.A. and Europe’s richest person. Amazon’s founder has added $10.2 billion this year to his wealth and $7 billion since the global equities rally began following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president on Nov. 8. The rise is the third biggest on the Bloomberg index in 2017, after Chinese parcel-delivery billionaire Wang Wei’s $18.4 billion gain and an $11.4 billion rise for Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg.

7am – A          Interview – JOHN WHITBECK – chairman of Republican Party of Virginia

• TOPIC: latest on the VA governor’s race:
• Virginia governor’s race CNU poll: Ed Gillespie tied with Democrats in general election. Republican Ed Gillespie would tie with either of the Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in this year’s gubernatorial contest, according to new survey results released Wednesday. Gillespie, a longtime GOP strategist and former counselor to George W. Bush, drew 40 percent of registered voters to Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam’s 39 percent in the poll by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. In a head to head matchup with former congressman Tom Perriello, who is competing with Northam for the Democratic nomination, Gillespie and Perriello tied at 39 percent each. A fifth of voters were undecided in both match-ups. The poll found that Gillespie performed best against either Democrat compared with his two rivals for the GOP nomination, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart and state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach).
• CNU poll: Tom Perriello, Ralph Northam even for Democratic guv berth
• Trump campaign’s Virginia chairman is running a Confederate-friendly campaign for governor. Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart pledges to defend the Confederate flag and monuments. Corey Stewart, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman in Virginia who was fired before the election for starting a protest outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, is running the most openly Confederate-friendly campaign for governor “in recent memory,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
• VA GOVERNOR’S RACE BACKGROUND: The Virginia gubernatorial election of 2017 will take place on November 7, 2017. Primaries will take place on June 13, 2017. The incumbent Governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, is not eligible to run for re-election due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution. Virginia is the only state that prohibits its Governor from serving consecutive terms. The primary elections will take place on June 13, 2017. Virginia utilizes an open primary, in which registered voters are allowed to vote in only one party’s primary election.
• Declared Democratic primary Candidates: Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and Tom Perriello, former U.S. Representative
• Declared Republican primary Candidates: Ed Gillespie, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014, Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2013 and Frank Wagner, State Senator

7am – B         SCHOOL NEWS:

• 5-Year-Old Girl Suspended From Kindergarten for Playing With ‘Stick Gun.’  (Fox News) — A North Carolina mother is outraged after her five-year-old daughter was suspended from school for playing with a stick that resembled a gun. Brandy Miller told WTVD that she got a call from her daughter’s principal on Friday about an incident that occurred on the playground.
• A Northern Arizona University student lost credit on an English paper for using the word “mankind” instead of a gender-neutral alternative.
• Missouri State University sponsored an hour-long event last week dedicated to the various ways fringe feminist activists can misspell the word “woman.”
• A teacher in Germantown is teaching her students how to spot fake news. GERMANTOWN — (CNN) Jennifer Aniston did WHAT to her hair?” screams the headline. Below the headline is a photo of the actress with a military buzz cut, along with a quote about how she’d shorn her iconic blonde locks for a role. The online article, printed on handouts that Alexis Gerard has distributed to her class at Clemente Middle School in Germantown, Maryland, is startling. It’s irresistible. It’s fake. Gerard is using the story to remind the 11- and 12-year-olds they shouldn’t believe everything they read online.

7am – C         DC METRO:

• Metro GM Paul Wiedefeld meets with Congress on funding. (Fox 5) — WASHINGTON – Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld is working to make Metro strong and safe again, but in order to do that, funds are needed. So far, Wiedefeld has cut jobs, reduced service and raised fares, but he says it will take an injection of money for years to help run the transportation system. On Wednesday, Wiedefeld took the issue to the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress appeared to see progress with the SafeTrack program, and there have been some hard budget decisions that have been made. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said Wednesday that the federal government has come up short in the past in helping the system that carries so many federal employees. “There is a missing partner, let’s just call him a free rider, the federal government. Every other actor that depends on Metro contributes to WMATA. I don’t know how long the federal government thinks it can get away without doing so,” Norton expressed during the House Oversight Hearing. The chairman of the oversight subcommittee, Mark Meadows, told Wiedefeld he would join the local delegation to support funding, but he indicated that he did not want to do it alone.
• Metro says the new paint job at Union Station will cost b/w $75k and $100k. Metro Is Painting The Walls Of One Station White, And Some People Are Not Happy About It. (WAMU) — There are some riders who are unhappy to see paint being applied to Union Station’s vault. Why?  “Brutalism in its purist form is about celebrating the materiality of concrete; painting over it hides that materiality,” explains Deane Madsen, an architect who created the Brutalist Washington Map, which highlights all the buildings in the city in that particular style — imposing structures made out of concrete. And yes, Metro’s stations were designed in the Brutalist style. Others echoed his opposition to the use of paint. “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!” tweeted architecture critic and CityLab writer Kriston Capps. “Weese’s vault should not be painted white,” offered Amanda Kolson Hurley, an architecture writer for the Washington City Paper and other publications, referring to Harry Weese, the architect of Metro’s original stations. And others have a more practical concern: What happens to the white paint in a few months? “Painting concrete doesn’t really hold up over time,” says Matt Johnson, a transportation planner who noticed the change this week.

7am – D         Comptroller Franchot Testifed On ‘Beer Bill’ At Senate Hearing. (WBAL) — Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot has sided with craft brewers regarding the latest bill in the Maryland Senate. The bill, which gets a hearing today before the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, makes a number of changes to the sampling and sale of beer. Two changes that craft brewers are wary about is the restriction of breweries to sell only beer it produces on site under its own label and the hours of operation being shortened. “We don’t want to see more restrictions placed upon us,” Key Brewing Company co-owner Michael McDonald said. “Four years ago, the state was kind enough to open up Class 5 breweries to have a tap room where we could sell our beer over the bar and this bill would really limit that.” Franchot, who is scheduled to testify in favor of the breweries, mirrored McDonald’s words. “A couple of well plugged-in individuals go in a back room and come out with a bill that puts you out of business,” he said. “And trust me, this is a bill that puts you out of business.”All the industry asks is that the government ‘get out of the way and let you do your job,'” he said.

7am – E         FOOD NEWS:

• You really CAN grow life on Mars – NASA study confirms it’s POSSIBLE with POTATOES. SCIENTISTS have successfully simulated the conditions of Mars as part of efforts to find out if life really can survive on the red planet. With similarities to the film “The Martian”, growing potatoes on Mars may not be just thing of sci-fi any longer. The ‘Potatoes on Mars’ project was launched by the International Potato Centre in February in Lima, where the Pampas de la Joya desert provides the closest thing Earth has to Mars’ arid soil. Working alongside NASA scientists and engineers from Lima’s University of Engineering & Technology, the team recreated the Red Planet’s extreme conditions inside a box called a CubeSat.
• KitKat fans outraged as Nestle changes recipe to slash sugar by 10%.  KitKat fans have reacted in outrage following the news that as of next week, Nestle will replace its iconic chocolate bars with healthier versions. The new recipe KitKat with 10 per cent less sugar will be rolled out in stores nationally as of next week, erasing the existing versions forever.  Nestle insists the taste will remain the same and has reassured customers the size and price will not be affected.
• NATS PARK: There is also a new Tater Tot & Chicken Wing bar === In concessions, there’s a new tater tot and wings bar and improved Wi-Fi throughout the park.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – MATT SCHLAPP — Chairman of the American Conservative Union

• Adam Schiff, leading Democrat on the House intel committee, says he will meet with Chairman Devin Nunes on Thursday. Senate intel committee has asked 20 people to be questioned in the Russia investigation, the panel’s chairman said.
• Repealing ObamaCare in Congress and its chances
• Matt had a hot debate over April Ryan-Sean Spicer on MSNBC

8am – B/C     PENCE ON MARRIAGE:

• Mike Pence never dines alone w/ a woman not his wife, nor does he attends events w alcohol, w/o her by his side.
• WASHINGTON POST did a profile on Vice President Pence’s wife Karen and noted that: “The Pences were married in a Roman Catholic church in 1985 but later became evangelical Christians. In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either. Supporters and critics alike cite her as a force behind her husband’s socially conservative stances…”

8am – D/E     Outrage grows over Congress’ Internet privacy vote. (CNN) — The Republican-led Congress has stirred the online hornet’s nest. Outrage is growing at Republicans following a controversial vote Tuesday to repeal Internet privacy protections that were approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the final days of the Obama administration. Privacy advocates, consumer groups and the tech community are all attacking the decision.