Joe diGenova, Dave Bossie, Trevor Matich, NASA’s Meagan Thompson and Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi joined WMAL on Monday!

Monday, August 21, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B Bannon Out at White House, Back at Breitbart (ABC News) Pres. Trump cheers Steve Bannon’s return to conservative media outlet Breitbart after White House departure

5am – C Powerball jackpot swells to $650million, making the prize third largest in US history (Daily Mail) There was no grand prize winner for the $535m Powerball drawing on Saturday. Now the jackpot has soared to $650m and the next drawing is Wednesday. If there is a winner this drawing, it will be the third-largest jackpot in US history.

5am – D Trump to Address Nation on ‘Path Forward’ in Afghanistan on Monday Night (Washington Examiner) President Donald Trump will discuss the “path forward” in Afghanistan in a speech on Monday night, the White House said in a statement Sunday. The speech, to be delivered at the Fort Myer military base in Arlington, Virginia, at 9 p.m. ET, will “provide an update on the path forward for America’s engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia,” the statement said. The address comes after a lengthy strategy review in which White House and Pentagon officials mulled a more aggressive role for the American military in Afghanistan.

10 sailors missing, 5 injured after USS McCain collides with merchant ship near Singapore, Navy says. (ABC News) A Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, collided with a commercial vessel east of Singapore early Monday morning local time, the Navy said. There were 10 sailors missing and five injured, the Navy said. “Four of the injured were medically evacuated by a Republic of Singapore Navy Puma helicopter to a hospital in Singapore for non-life threatening injuries,” the Navy said in a statement. “The fifth injured Sailor does not require further medical attention.” The collision with the merchant ship Alnic MC occurred east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time, as the McCain was on its way for a routine port visit in Singapore, the Navy said.

North Korea warned Sunday that the upcoming US-South Korea military exercises are “reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war.” (CNN) Pyongyang also declared that its army can target the United States anytime, and neither Guam, Hawaii nor the US mainland can “dodge the merciless strike.” The messages in Rodong Sinmun, the official government newspaper, come a day before the US starts the Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercises with South Korea. Tensions between the US and North Korea have grown in recent weeks.

5am – E Antifa Rioters Attack Police At Boston Free Speech Rally An estimated over 20,000 people showed up to Boston to protest the Free Speech Rally after it was reported that the free speech group was made up of white supremacists. Antifa among the counter-protesters began attacking police Saturday afternoon. Around 50 people showed up to attend the Free Speech Rally, none of them are known white supremacists and no white supremacist symbols were being displayed. After the 50 people at the free speech rally gave speeches, police tried to transport them out and Antifa members began to mob them and throw objects at police officers. Those officers were in their patrol uniform with no protective gear. Multiple arrests have been made as crowd control officers responded and took down some of the Antifa agitators.

6am – A Confederate Monuments Removed Or Vandalized Across US (CBS DFW) Confederate monuments are being removed around the country under pressure from those who say they honor a regime that enslaved African-Americans. The pace has increased, however, in the wake of last weekend’s deadly confrontation at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

6am – B Jerry Lewis, comedy king and master of slapstick, dies at 91 (Washington Post) Jerry Lewis, who died Aug. 20 at 91, was a comic actor whose rubber-limbed pratfalls, squeaky voice and pipsqueak buffoonery made him one of the most uncontainable screen clowns of all time. His partnership with the suave and assured crooner Dean Martin made them a sensation, easily the most popular comedy team of the mid-20th century. After their bitter breakup, which devastated their millions of fans, Mr. Lewis embarked on a solo career of dizzying summits and desperate lows, including an addiction to painkillers as years of physical comedy took their toll. Fascinated by the technical side of film, he became one of the first sound-era comedians to write, direct and star in his own movies. He was credited with laying the groundwork for later comedic writer-director-actors such as Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. Few comedians have been so beloved and so derided as Mr. Lewis, who amassed devoted fans and stunningly hostile reviews from critics. Few have been so accomplished as humanitarians — his annual muscular dystrophy telethons had raised almost $1.5 billion by the late 2000s — or so polarizing as personalities.

Dick Gregory, civil rights activist and comedian, dead at 84 (CNN) Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who broke barriers in the 1960s and became one of the first African-Americans to perform at white clubs, died Saturday. He was 84. Gregory recently rescheduled an event in Atlanta because he was hospitalized. He died in Washington, his son posted on social media without giving details. “The family appreciates the outpouring of support and love, and respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time,” Christian Gregory said. “More details will be released over the next few days.” Gregory satirized segregation and racial injustice in his acts, and was arrested several times in the 1960s for joining civil rights rallies.

6am – C How to Watch a Solar Eclipse (New York Times) On Aug. 21, at midday, people who live in, or have ventured to, a band about 70 miles wide arcing from Oregon to South Carolina will get to see the moon pass directly in front of the sun. For a minute or two day will turn to night. If you are one of the lucky people who will get to see this total eclipse live and in-person, make sure you take advantage. But you will still see a partial eclipse if you are anywhere in North America. The moment when the moon passes completely in front of the sun, an event called “totality,” will begin in Lincoln City at 10:16 a.m. PT and travel to the other side of the country, and exiting at Charleston, South Carolina at 2:48 p.m. ET. The entire journey takes about an hour and a half. Even if you are not in the path of the total eclipse, a partial eclipse will be visible throughout the continental United States. The last remnants of the lunar shadow will finish passing over the country at 4:09 p.m.

6am – D Father of modern-day password regrets original guidance (CBS News) Formulating strings of numbers, letters and symbols into passwords is a fact of modern-day life, although not a particularly popular one. Count Bill Burr among the bothered. “Well it frustrates everybody, me included,” he said — really something when you consider Burr is the father of the modern-day password. “I have maybe 200 passwords. I can’t remember all those obviously,” he said. Fourteen years ago, writing the official guidance for government employees, Burr suggested picking random combinations and changing them often. But it turns out something like “SOMETHINGLIKETHIS” is a lot harder to hack than something like “80&3T4!*G$\#ET415” or a similarly long string of random characters. “It’s probably better to do fairly long passwords that are phrases or something like that that you can remember than to try to get people to do lots of funny characters,” Burr said. So a couple of months back, the guidelines were rewritten to reflect the discovery. Burr is now retired, but he helped out. When asked if he had any regrets about his original guidance, Burr said, “Yeah, I do.” “I think I could have done a better job of figuring out some of the things that we now know, or at least of guessing them” he said. If only regret was as easy to forget as the passwords he helped create.

6am – E Barcelona Terror Attack Van Driver May Have Fled to France, Spain Police Say (NBC News) The driver of the van that rammed into crowds on Barcelona’s La Rambla, killing 13 people including an American, may have crossed the border into France, Spanish police said Sunday. “We don’t have any specific information on this but it cannot be ruled out,” Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero told a news conference in Barcelona. Trapero said the manhunt continued more than 48 hours after the driver was seen fleeing the scene of the attack on foot. Barcelona Terror Attack Van Driver May Have Fled to France, Spain Police Say

Finland Terror Attack (CBS News) The knife attack in western Finland that left two people dead and seven others wounded is “a likely terror act,” Finland’s intelligence agency said Saturday. Finland stabbing attack was “a likely terror act,” officials say. Police said Europol was investigating if it had any ties to deadly vehicle attacks in Spain. The suspect — an 18-year-old Moroccan asylum-seeker — was shot and wounded in the thigh by police during his rampage Friday in the city of Turku. He was hospitalized under guard — still in intensive care Saturday — and is being investigated for murder with possible terrorist intent, police said. His name has not been released but investigators say he came to Finland in early 2016 seeking asylum. “It’s likely at this moment that we’re dealing with a terror attack,” intelligence agency investigator Pekka Hiltunen said, adding that it was investigating the suspect’s connections to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), since the network “has previously encouraged this kind of behavior.”

A car has plowed into two bus stops in Marseille, France, days after the Barcelona attack (Newsweek) At least one person has died and another left injured after a car crashed into two bus shelters in different areas of the southern French city of Marseille, police said on Monday. Officers arrested the 35-year-old driver in the Old Port area of France’s second-biggest city, a police source told Reuters. French prosecutors say they are not treating the rammings as related to an extremist attack. The first crash took place in the northern 13th arrondissement at 8:15 a.m local time, the driver then proceeded to hit a second shelter one hour later in the southern 11th arrondissement. French police wrote on Twitter that a “Marseille police operation is underway,” advising the public to avoid the port area. Julien Ravier, a local mayor, told France’s BFMTV news channel that the victim of the crash at the second bus shelter was a woman in her 40s. She was waiting alone at the stop. The crash comes at a time when European security services are on high alert after a spate of vehicle attacks across Europe. On Thursday 13 people died after a vehicle ramming in Barcelona that was closely followed by another in Cambrils, a town south of the Spanish city, that killed one person. The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) claimed the Barcelona attack in which a driver plowed into pedestrians at high speed on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard, injuring over 120 people. An official on Monday named the man they believe to be the driver of the van. Catalonian police wrote on Twitter they had identified the driver, but did not name him. But in a radio interview, Catalan interior minister Joaquim Forn said that “everything suggests the van driver is Younes Abouyaaqoub.” Authorities view the 22-year-old Moroccan as the final member of a 12-man network that carried out two attacks in the Barcelona region last Thursday and early Friday. Police detained or shot dead the other members of the cell.

6am – F In July, The National Zoo welcomed three Endangered Red Panda Cubs (Smithsonian National Zoo) Two litters of red panda cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute last month within days of each other. Nutmeg, an experienced mom, gave birth to two cubs June 14. Moonlight, a first-time mom, gave birth to two cubs June 17, but one of the cubs died shortly after birth. Both litters of cubs opened their eyes July 9 and appear to be doing well. Nutmeg’s cubs weighed 367 grams and 234 grams at their last weigh-in. Moonlight’s cub topped the scales at 330 grams.

National Zoo Closes Indoor Panda Habitat Amid Possible Mei Xiang Pregnancy (WMAL) The Smithsonian National Zoo released a statement today announcing the partial closure of their indoor Panda Habitat due to a possible pregnancy with Mei Xiang: Beginning today, Aug. 18, the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat will be partially closed to keep a quiet area around female giant panda Mei Xiang’s den. Although keepers are not able to confirm if she is pregnant, Mei Xiang is exhibiting expected, normal behaviors after the secondary hormone rise that are in line with both a pregnancy and pseudo, or false, pregnancy. She is building a nest in her den, has a decreased appetite, is sleeping more and is reacting to loud noises. Paws-crossed! Pandas, like several other species, can undergo pseudopregnancies, where they do everything they would if they were pregnant. At the end of a pseudopregnancy, however, hormone levels return to baseline and females’ energy levels and behavior return to normal. We’ll continue to share updates via social media but also encourage you to sign up for the Zoo’s Giant Panda Bulletin. And then, there’s always the panda cam! The closure will not affect the outdoor habitats and viewing areas. Please note that although Bei Bei will have access to be outside until 2 p.m., due to the weather, the best time to see him will be outside in his yard from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Indoor viewing for Bei Bei will be closed. Mei Xiang had been artificially inseminated earlier this year and recently underwent ultrasounds.

7am – A INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

TOPIC: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’ growing scandal

• IT staffers may have compromised sensitive data to foreign intelligence. Feds Investigating Whether Wasserman-Schultz Aide Imran Awan Sold Secrets to Russians

• Case against Wasserman-Schultz’ ex-IT aide expands with 4-count indictment

• Two Former Wasserman-Schultz IT Aides Indicted For Conspiracy Against U.S.  (Daily Caller) -A federal grand jury Thursday indicted two former information technology (IT) aides of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz — Pakistani-born Imran Awan and his wife Hina Alvi — on four counts of conspiracy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The FBI arrested Awan at Dulles International Airport July 24 as he was preparing to board a flight to Pakistan. When his wife Alvi left the U.S. for Pakistan in March, federal authorities found more than $12,000 in cash hidden in a suitcase. She had withdrawn the couple’s three children from local schools and does not intend to return to the U.S., according to the FBI.

7am – B Trump to Address Nation on ‘Path Forward’ in Afghanistan on Monday Night (NBC News) President Donald Trump will discuss the “path forward” in Afghanistan in a speech on Monday night, the White House said in a statement Sunday. The speech, to be delivered at the Fort Myer military base in Arlington, Virginia, at 9 p.m. ET, will “provide an update on the path forward for America’s engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia,” the statement said. The address comes after a lengthy strategy review in which White House and Pentagon officials mulled a more aggressive role for the American military in Afghanistan. The review, which was led by National Security Adviser Lt. Gen H.R. McMaster, looked at whether several thousand more troops should be deployed to the country, U.S. defense officials told NBC News last month. The troops would be assigned to counter-terrorism and NATO training missions, the officials said, and would expand the American military’s current footprint of roughly 8,400 troops. Military forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001, making it America’s longest war. In 2014, President Barack Obama ended the United States’ combat mission in the country, though two years later he authorized American airstrikes that supported the Afghan military’s offensive. Six months later, Obama also authorized the targeting of an ISIS affiliate that had grown in eastern Afghanistan.

10 sailors missing, 5 injured after USS McCain collides with merchant ship near Singapore, Navy says. (ABC News) A Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, collided with a commercial vessel east of Singapore early Monday morning local time, the Navy said. There were 10 sailors missing and five injured, the Navy said. “Four of the injured were medically evacuated by a Republic of Singapore Navy Puma helicopter to a hospital in Singapore for non-life threatening injuries,” the Navy said in a statement. “The fifth injured Sailor does not require further medical attention.” The collision with the merchant ship Alnic MC occurred east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time, as the McCain was on its way for a routine port visit in Singapore, the Navy said. “Initial reports indicate John S. McCain sustained damage to her port side aft,” the Navy said, adding that a search and rescue mission was already underway. The ship arrived at Changi Naval Base following the collision, according to a Navy statement. “Significant damage to the hull resulted in flooding to nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery, and communications rooms,” the Navy said. The search and rescue effort was being aided by tug boats out of Singapore, as well as the Singapore Navy ship RSS Gallant, Singapore navy helicopters and a Police Coast Guard vessel.

North Korea warned Sunday that the upcoming US-South Korea military exercises are “reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war.” (CNN) Pyongyang also declared that its army can target the United States anytime, and neither Guam, Hawaii nor the US mainland can “dodge the merciless strike.” The messages in Rodong Sinmun, the official government newspaper, come a day before the US starts the Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercises with South Korea. Tensions between the US and North Korea have grown in recent weeks. Just last week, Pyongyang said it had finalized a plan to fire four missiles toward the US territory of Guam. State media reported that leader Kim Jong Un would assess the US’ next move before giving launch orders. Kim would “watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees,” a North Korean statement said last week.

7am – C D.C. BACK TO SCHOOL: D.C. public school students return to class Monday. More supervision planned at key Metro stations as DC goes back to school. Expect to see more supervision at key Metro stations next week as D.C. public school students go back to class. As part of the District’s Back to School Safety Campaign, Mayor Muriel Bowser is set to announce Friday that the city and Metro Transit Police have partnered to “increase adult supervision” at a number of Metro stations and a major bus corridor. D.C. public school students return to class Monday. The District government pays for all 70,000 or so students in public and public charter schools to ride Metrorail, Metrobus and the D.C. Circulator during the school year. Students or their families must register the student’s DC One Card (school identification), so it can be used to tap in and tap out of the Metro system. DC has plans to reopen historic school closed for nearly a decade. A historic D.C. school that closed nearly a decade ago is set to reopen under a new plan announced by Mayor Muriel Bowser this week. The Thaddeus Stevens School, which closed in 2008, will reopen as an infant and toddler development center and as an additional classroom space for the nearby School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens, which runs from prekindergarten to eighth grade. The school was the first in the District built with public funds to educate African American children when it opened its doors in 1868. For years, it stood as the oldest school still in operation. D.C.’s vaunted high school for the arts reopens — $100 million over budget (Washington Post) — When the Duke Ellington School of the Arts reopens its Georgetown campus next week after a three-year renovation, it will boast state-of-the-art dance and music studios, gleaming new classrooms, an 850-seat multimedia auditorium, a 300-seat performance hall, a rooftop terrace and underground parking. From head to toe it will be the showstopper in the decade-long drive to modernize the D.C. Public Schools. But Ellington will also reopen more than a year behind schedule and about $100 million over the $71 million budget the D.C. Council first approved, making it the biggest budget-buster in the modernization effort for all 115 DCPS schools. And the spending at Ellington isn’t finished. Last month,frustrated council members considered a late request for $4.5 million to have the school ready for its 575 students when classes start Aug. 21. Among the extra costs were $1.5 million in permit fees still unpaid and $250,000 to bleach terrazzo flooring.

7am – D INTERVIEW – DAVID BOSSIE – former Deputy Manager of the Trump campaign and current president of Citizens United, friend of Steve Bannon

TOPIC: Steve Bannon leaving the White House

• Pres. Trump cheers Steve Bannon’s return to conservative media outlet Breitbart after White House departure (ABC NEWS) –  President Trump is cheering his former chief strategist Steve Bannon’s return to leading the influential conservative media outlet Breitbart News after his forced resignation from the White House. Trump tweeted from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club Saturday that Bannon may be “even better than ever before” in his return to Breitbart.

• Breitbart goes after McMaster after Bannon returns to the publication (The Hill) — Breitbart News, the media outlet helmed by President Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, published an article on Sunday casting national security adviser H.R. McMaster as soft on Islamist extremism and terrorism.  The article came just two days after Bannon’s departure from the White House. He returned to Breitbart later on Friday. Bannon’s tenure in the White House was often turbulent, and he is said to have frequently feuded with the president’s other aides — McMaster in particular.

7am – E INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – WMAL’s Redskins analyst and former Redskins snapper

TOPIC: Recap Packers v. Redskins preseason game

• Green Bay Packers (2-0)   21 – 17  Washington Redskins (0-2)

NFL Preseason

Saturday, August 19, 7:30 PM

FedEx Field, Maryland

8am – A INTERVIEW – MEAGAN THOMPSON – ‎Senior Scientist at Arctic Slope Technical Services, NASA Division of Planetary Science

TOPIC: Solar eclipse preview

• Eclipse overview (what’s happening, how often it happens, why it doesn’t happen more often, etc.), talk about viewing safety and what the eclipse will look like from DC, and then a little bit about the science NASA is interested in

8am – B Where to find eclipse glasses this weekend in DC, Maryland, and Virginia They’re the hottest commodity around and no one can find them. We’re talking about eclipse glasses, and with the August 21 solar eclipse fast approaching, excited sky gazers are more desperate than ever to get their hands on a pair. Earlier this week, we put out a long list of verified locations that were selling the glasses, but around the DMV, we know that many of them have sold out—and the same is true for the verified online merchants.

8am – C Trump not attending Kennedy Center Honors (The Wrap) President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will skip this year’s Kennedy Center Honors after two of the five honorees announced plans to boycott the ceremony and traditional White House reception. “The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement released Saturday morning. “First Lady Melania Trump, along with her husband President Donald J. Trump, extend their sincerest congratulations and well wishes to all of this year’s award recipients for their many accomplishments,” she added. Since Trump has come under fire for his response to the deadly rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, two of this year’s honorees — TV producer Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade — announced they would boycott the White House event scheduled for this December. Singer Lionel Richie indicated that he might also boycott the event, rapper LL Cool J has not indicated if he would attend, while singer Gloria Estefan said she would attend to try to lobby the president on immigration issues. The awards program, honoring Americans who have made substantial contributions to the arts, is still scheduled to take place on Dec. 3 and will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 26. This is the latest sign of fallout from Trump’s widely criticized response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, for which he has repeatedly blamed “both sides” for violence that resulted in three deaths and dozens of injuries.

8am – D INTERVIEW – ELAHE IZADI – Pop Culture Reporter for The Washington Post and a stand up comedian

TOPIC: Reflect on the respective lives and legacies of Jerry Lewis and Dick Gregory

• Jerry Lewis, comedy king and master of slapstick, dies at 91

• “The world mourns Dick Gregory” (died at 84) (Washington Post)

8am – E Antifa Rioters Attack Police At Boston Free Speech Rally An estimated over 20,000 people showed up to Boston to protest the Free Speech Rally after it was reported that the free speech group was made up of white supremacists. Antifa among the counter-protesters began attacking police Saturday afternoon. Around 50 people showed up to attend the Free Speech Rally, none of them are known white supremacists and no white supremacist symbols were being displayed. After the 50 people at the free speech rally gave speeches, police tried to transport them out and Antifa members began to mob them and throw objects at police officers. Those officers were in their patrol uniform with no protective gear. Multiple arrests have been made as crowd control officers responded and took down some of the Antifa agitators.