wmal.com/  888-630-WMAL (9625)   

Facebook: facebook.com/wmaldc ** Twitter: @wmalmornings

** E-mail: [email protected] **

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday June 20, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Democrats to halt Senate business in health care protest (CNN) Senate Democrats will move to bring the chamber to a halt Monday night to protest the Republicans’ closed-door process to gut Obamacare in the coming days, according to a senior Democratic aide. Democrats plan to object to routine requests to let the chamber operate — whether it’s scheduling votes or allowing committees to meet for extended hearings — in a move aimed at escalating the fight over health care. Senate Democrats intensify criticism of emerging GOP health bill At one point early Monday evening, more than a dozen Democratic senators sat at their desks on the Senate floor and took turns standing and asking for committee hearings on the bill and for the text to be released for greater scrutiny. Each time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calmly rose from his desk at the front of the chamber and objected to their requests. “This is going to be a long evening because there are a lot of folks who are frustrated,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said. In the hours that followed, Democratic senators, some who brought charts and other visuals, took turns delivering remarks on the Senate floor in which they upbraided Republicans.

5am – D  Rock Band The Slants Win Supreme Court Battle Over Name (TMZ) Asian-American rock group, The Slants, are free and clear to trademark their name after a Supreme Court ruling in their favor. The Slants had attempted to trademark their controversial name back in 2011, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shot them down based on the name being disparaging. Monday, the Supreme Court said that law violates free speech, and therefore the trademark should be granted. It’s a victory for the band, and potentially for the Washington Redskins … whose trademark request was denied on the same grounds. From today’s opinion by Justice Samuel Alito (for four justices) in Matal v. Tam, the “Slants” case: [The idea that the government may restrict] speech expressing ideas that offend … strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”

5am– E    Dolce & Gabbana Designer Fires Back At ‘Ignorant’ Miley Cyrus For Criticizing Brand’s ‘Politics’ (Breitbart) After Cyrus’ brother walked in the Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2018 Menswear runway show, the “Malibu” singer took to Instagram to criticize the designers for their right-of-center politics in a celebratory post about her brother’s modeling debut. “PS D&G, I STRONGLY disagree with your politics…. but I do support your company’s effort to celebrate young artists & give them the platform to shine their light for all to see,” Cyrus wrote in the post. The post was enough for Stefano Gabbana to hit back at Cyrus, telling the celebrity to not post on her Instagram about his fashion brand. “We are Italian and we don’t care about politics and mostly neither about the American one! We make dresses and if you think about doing politics with a post it’s simply ignorant. We don’t need your posts or comments so next time please ignore us!! #boycottdolcegabbana,” Gabbana wrote. Outdoor Clothing Giant Patagonia Pledging to Lead Resistance to Trump The CEO of outdoor clothing giant Patagonia is burnishing her anti-Republican bona fides again, this time saying she intends to pledge her entire company to the “resistance” of President Donald Trump.

6am – A/B/C Uber Driver Fined in Miami-Dade County For Violating Rule Requiring Ability to Speak English (NBC) An Uber driver in South Florida was given a hefty ticket for violating a county ordinance that speaks less to how she handles her vehicle than other skills. Cell phone footage obtained exclusively by NBC 6 sister station Telemundo 51captured Carmen Echevarria, getting a $250 ticket from a Miami-Dade Police officer outside Miami International Airport. Her violation? Not being able to speak English correctly. “I felt discriminated against,” Echevarria told the station in Spanish. “I asked the (passenger sitting in her car) ‘Can you please help translate what she is saying?’ Then she asked why, if I was an Uber driver, I didn’t speak English.” In May 2016, Miami-Dade County issued a memorandum with rules for transportation network drivers – with one of the requirements being “able to communicate in the English language.”

6am – D INTERVIEW – PETER BROOKES –  Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, National Security Affairs, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy

Topic: U.S shoots down Syrian plane

• U.S. pilots operating over Syria won’t hesitate to defend themselves from Russian threats, a Pentagon spokesperson said Monday in the latest escalation between the two superpowers since a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian aircraft on Sunday.
• The United States is inching closer to involvement in the Syrian civil war after U.S. forces shot down a Syrian fighter jet on Sunday.

6am – E Text to 911: DC launches emergency service texting system (FOX 5) A new system will allow residents in the District to text 911 during an emergency. Text to 911 helps people who are deaf, hard of hearing, have speech disabilities or would be put in more danger by making a phone call rather than sending a text message. The program is part of an effort to modernize 911 systems nationwide as the Office of Unified Communications reports an increase in emergency calls. Warning Ticket Hopes to Prevent Car Break – ins D.C. police were handing out warnings to drivers who are leaving valuables inside their cars.

6am – F  What Killed Otto Warmbier? Maybe an Infection or Blood Clot Pneumonia, a blood clot, kidney failure or sepsis could have killed Otto Warmbier, but he almost certainly never had a chance of recovering, neurologists said Monday. Warmbier’s family said he died Monday afternoon, just days after he was returned unconscious and unresponsive from North Korea. American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea on March 16, 2016.  North Korean officials said he had been in a coma for more than a year — right after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in prison for allegedly having taken a propaganda poster off a wall.

7am – A/B/C  ICE Places Detainer On Salvadoran Immigrant Suspected Of Murdering Muslim Teen (Daily Caller) A 22-year-old man accused of killing a 17-year-old Muslim girl in Virginia on Sunday morning is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tells The Daily Caller. The suspect, Darwin A. Martinez Torres, was arrested on Sunday in the death of Nabra Hassanen, a high school student from Reston, Va. Police say he beat Hassanen with a metal baseball bat in what is being described as a road rage incident. The case initially drew national attention because of the possibility of it being an anti-Muslim hate crime. But the Fairfax Co. Sheriff’s Department ruled out bias as a motive in statements on Monday. Local police and ICE were slow in confirming whether Torres is in the U.S. illegally. But in a statement issued Monday afternoon, an ICE spokesperson confirmed that the agency has lodged a detainer request against the El Salvadoran national, indicating that he is an illegal alien.” On June 19, ICE lodged a detainer on Darwin Martinez Torres, a citizen and national of El Salvador, with the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia. ICE lodges detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges when the agency has probable cause to believe an alien is removable from the United States. Mr. Martinez Torres has no prior encounters with ICE,” ICE spokesperson Carissa Cutrell told TheDC.

7am – D Judicial Watch: Susan Rice ‘Unmasking’ Documents Moved from NSC to Obama Library (Brietbart) The National Security Council cannot hand over records relating to former National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s surveillance of Americans, because they have been moved to the Obama presidential library and may be sealed for as may as five years, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch announced Monday.

The NSC informed Judicial Watch in a letter dated May 23 that materials related to Rice’s requests to know the identities of Americans swept up in surveillance of foreign targets, including any Trump campaign or transition officials, have been moved to the library. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the group will seek to find out when the records were moved, and warned of legal actions.

7am – E  Spicer searching for candidates to take over White House briefing (Politico) White House press secretary Sean Spicer is leading a search for his own replacement at the briefing room podium as part of a larger plan to shake up the White House communications operations, according to two people with knowledge of the effort.

Last week, Spicer and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to Fox News personality Laura Ingraham about the role of press secretary and Daily Mail editor David Martosko about the role of communications director, according to a White House official.

8am – A INTERVIEW – SCOTT GREER – Deputy Editor of the Daily Caller

Topic: Otto Warmbier’s death 

• The U.S. college student North Korea sent home in a coma last week has died, according to a statement his parents released Monday.
• U.S. officials have strongly criticized the reclusive regime for its brutal acts, which took the life of a U.S. citizen and tore apart a family that fought tirelessly to get him back.

8am- B The CIA has been hacking dozens of Wi-Fi routers and using them as covert listening points for at least a DECADE, leaked documents reveal (Daily Mail)  Leaked CIA documents have revealed the agency has been hacking people’s Wi-Fi routers and using them as covert listening points. Infected routers are used to spy on the activity of internet-connected device, according to decade-old secret documents leaked on Thursday by Wikileaks.  Home routers from 10 US manufacturers, including Linksys, DLink, and Belkin, have been used by the CIA to monitor internet traffic. 

8am – C  Ossoff Has Nine Times As Many Donors In California Than His Home State Of Georgia (Daily Caller) Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff raised funds from 8.9 times as many donors in California than donors in Georgia between March 29 and May 31, according to his latest campaign finance reporting. Ossoff, a 30-year old documentary filmmaker, faces Republican Karen Handel in a special election Tuesday to replace former Republican Rep. Tom Price who accepted President Donald Trump’s offer to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

8am – D INTERVIEW –  LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays

Topic: House Speaker Paul Ryan to deliver major speech on tax plan

• House Speaker Paul Ryan is promising to overhaul the tax code by the end of the year despite political divisions among Republicans and a crowded legislative agenda for Congress.
• According to Ryan’s office, the Wisconsin Republican will “warn against accepting half measures or believing there is a path to reform without obstacles and political challenges.”

8am – E  Carrie Fisher Had Cocaine, Heroin, Ecstasy in Her System, Autopsy Shows (Variety) Carrie Fisher had cocaine, methadone, heroin and ecstasy in her system when she died in December, according to an autopsy report released Monday. The coroner’s report listed sleep apnea as the primary cause of death, with drug intake as a contributing factor. The report stated that Fisher’s family objected to a full autopsy, and coroner’s investigators had access to limited toxicology specimens. The conclusions were based on toxicology results and an external examination of Fisher’s body.