Cal Thomas, Kerry Picket, Al Weaver and Montgomery County Councilmember Marc Elrich joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C   EDUCATION INEQUALITY IN AMERICA STARTS AT AGE 3: Do kids need pre-school?

• By age 3, inequality is clear: Rich kids attend school. Poor kids stay with a grandparent. (Washington Post) – Many working parents leave their children with a relative or at the home of a lady down the street. They can’t afford formal preschool or day care, which now averages almost $10,000 a year, according to the Care Index. Inequality in America is apparent by age 3: Most rich kids are in school, while most poor kids are not, according to a new book, “Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality.” Only 55 percent of America’s 3 and 4-year-olds attend a formal preschool, a rate far below China, Germany and other power players on the global stage. It’s a problem for the kids left behind — and for the U.S. economy. Companies are already complaining they can’t find enough skilled workers. It’s only expected to get worse if the United States doesn’t do a better job educating its youth.

5am – D         President Trump criticized for Puerto Rico response

• Pres. Trump to travel to Puerto Rico Tuesday: “Earliest I can go…we don’t want to disrupt the relief efforts.”  
• Hillary lit up Twitter a bit asking why USNS Comfort (home port in Norfolk) hasn’t been deployed to help in Puerto Rico relief: “President Trump, Sec. Mattis, and DOD should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens.“
• Hillary Says She’s ‘Not Sure’ Trump Knows Puerto Ricans Are American Citizens During her tirade on SiriusProgress, Clinton took a detour to question Trump’s knowledge of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. “At the same time he was doing all of that,” Clinton said of Trump’s comments about the NFL, “we had American citizens in Puerto Rico who are in a desperate condition. He has not said one word about them, about other American citizens in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” “I’m not sure he knows that Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” she continued.
• Whoopi Goldberg: ‘I Don’t Think’ Trump ‘Realizes That Puerto Rico is Part of the United States’  
• Speaker Paul Ryan on Puerto Rico: “They’re going to get the kind of support and the aid that Texas and Florida” did.
• Puerto Rico Public Affairs Sec. Ramon Rosario said it will take months to fully restore power to the island.  
• Trump administration faces pressure to speed up recovery efforts in Puerto Rico  
• Romney pleads with lawmakers: Put aside controversies, Puerto Rico is on “brink of humanitarian disaster” Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday joined the chorus of voices calling on lawmakers to prioritize hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands before a humanitarian crisis unfolds. Romney made the plea in a tweet to “put aside controversies” and “prioritize rescue” efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria tore through the Caribbean last week. He said former Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño warned him that the American territory is on the “brink of a humanitarian disaster.”
• Singer Marc Anthony To Trump: ‘Shut The F*** Up About The NFL’ And Help Puerto Rico

5am – E         ALABAMA SENATE

• Alabama Republican Senate primary: Roy Moore defeats Trump-backed Luther Strange
• Trump’s recent tweets supporting Luther Strange deleted after projected loss.  (CNN)President Donald Trump’s most recent tweets urging Alabamians to vote for Sen. Luther Strange disappeared from his verified Twitter account Tuesday night, after the candidate was projected to lose the Republican primary runoff for a Senate seat. Three recent Trump tweets about Strange were deleted Tuesday night, according to ProPublica, which tracks deleted tweets. This came shortly after Strange appeared headed for a loss, despite Trump’s efforts to help the candidate. The deleted tweets had touted Trump’s personal endorsement of Strange. On Tuesday morning, Trump had tweeted: “ALABAMA, get out and vote for Luther Strange – he has proven to me that he will never let you down! #MAGA” Earlier in the morning, Trump had tweeted: “Luther Strange has been shooting up in the Alabama polls since my endorsement. Finish the job – vote today for ‘Big Luther.'”

6am – A/B/C  Last night, Montgomery County held a public hearing Tuesday about whether to raise min wage to $15 an hour.

• Revised $15 minimum wage bill gets mixed reviews in Montgomery Co. (WTOP) – WASHINGTON — The latest plan to phase in a $15 an hour minimum wage in Montgomery County got mixed reviews Tuesday night at a council public hearing. The bill is slightly different from one the council approved earlier this year that was vetoed by County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett. The county’s current minimum wage is $11.50 an hour, and under the new plan, businesses with at least 26 employees would have until 2020 to raise wages to $15 an hour. Smaller businesses, nonprofit groups and in-home health care providers would have more time — until 2022 — to boost workers’ pay to the $15 level. But Ron Zimmerman, co-owner of Zimmerman’s Ace Hardware in Burtonsville, thinks the plan would be devastating for him. “It will cause us to lose our business, plain and simple,” he said.
• (WAMU) – Supporters of a $15 minimum wage hike in Montgomery County are trying again, after efforts to raise the minimum wage failed earlier this year. Council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large) presented a revised bill to the Council on Tuesday that addressed concerns about how a wage hike would affect the local economy. The county’s push for a wage hike started back in 2013, when Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and D.C. all agreed to raise their minimum wages in unison to $11.50 an hour by 2017. Then, earlier this year, the Montgomery County Council voted 5-4 to pass another bill that would raise the minimum wage again, to $15 an hour by 2020. But that effort didn’t make it past County Executive Ike Leggett, who “reluctantly vetoed” the bill at the end of January.

6am – D         Interview – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist – discussed tax reform, Obamacare and national anthem controversy.

6am – E         NEW FOX LINEUP

• GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! Fox News Unveils New Female Friendly Daytime Lineup. (Daily Caller) — Females are jumping into new host roles at Fox News. Harris Faulkner, Dana Perino and Sandra Smith are all stepping up in the world at Fox News as the company slides them into new daytime roles. This is in addition to Laura Ingraham, who will host her own program at 10p.m. and Shannon Bream who will head up her own show at 11 p.m. Martha MacCallum hosts The Story at 7 p.m. Perhaps Megyn Kelly left too soon? Faulkner will host a show at 1 p.m. called Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner.  Perino, who appears on The Five, will host The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino at 2 p.m. And Smith will hook up with Bill Hemmer for a permanent post in America’s Newsroom between 9-11 a.m.
• Megyn Kelly’s morning show debut lower in ratings than same time slot a year ago (The Hill) – Megyn Kelly’s morning show debut delivered mixed ratings results for NBC on Monday.  According to Nielsen fast affiliate ratings, “Megyn Kelly Today” registered 2.93 million viewers and 917,000 in the key 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most.  Compared to the same time slot in September 2016, Kelly finished 4 percent lower in total viewers.  In the 25-54 demographic, the show was down by 11 percent. When breaking the numbers down by gender in the demographic, Kelly was down 15 percent among female viewers.
• Sean Hannity Tops Rachel Maddow In First Night Back At 9 PM.  Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity topped MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow across the board at 9 PM Monday night. The season debut marked Hannity’s move back to 9 PM to duke it out with The Rachel Maddow Show, which has been the highest-rated thing on cable TV news of late. Averaging 3.3 million in total viewers and 666K in the 25-54 news demo, Hannity’s season debut — featuring an interview with former White House strategist/current Breitbart honcho Steve Bannon — was the highest-rated cable news program in both categories for the day. Maddow clocked 2.7 M total viewers and 591K viewers in the 25-54 age bracket. CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° ate their timeslot dust: 1.5M total viewers and 470K news-demo viewers.

6am – F         4 NCAA Basketball Coaches, Adidas Executive Charged in Bribe Scheme. A federal investigation into the “dark underbelly” of college basketball exposed bribery schemes in which coaches at top programs took cash to steer star athletes to certain managers and helped funnel payoffs to players’ families to ensure they signed with particular schools, prosecutors said Tuesday. Some of the biggest names in college sports — from Adidas to the University of Louisville — were caught up in the probe, which began in 2015 with the help of a fallen financial adviser who agreed to wear a wire for the feds.  Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said the FBI and prosecutors set out to investigate the “dark underbelly of college basketball” and found a pay-to-play culture flourishing in some corners of the NCAA.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – KERRY PICKET – Reporter, The Daily Caller (Kerry is half Puerto Rican) – discussed President Trump criticized for Puerto Rico response.

7am – B         ANTHEM PROTEST NEWS:

• 80% of survey respondents would like to see sports and politics less intertwined.  Lots of other numbers here.
• CHRISTIAN SCHOOL BANS KNEELING DURING ANTHEM: An NCAA (Div 2) university in Colorado has banned its student-athletes from kneeling during the national anthem … saying the demonstration shows “disrespect towards our country.” A spokesperson for Colorado Christian University tells TMZ Sports … “all athletes must stand for the National Anthem and prayer before a game or sporting event.”
• NFL fans burn season tickets, jerseys, and other paraphernalia in response to football players taking a knee
• Another Democrat takes a knee on House floor. A second Democratic lawmaker took a knee on the House floor Tuesday to support NFL players protesting racial injustice and police brutality. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) went down on one knee behind his podium at the end of a speech denouncing President Trump’s attacks on athletes who kneel during the national anthem to draw attention to law enforcement’s treatment of African-Americans, The Hill reported. “I think today, taking a knee is becoming a broader sign of patriotism and respect for our country,” Pocan said. “I join so many now in the NFL and elsewhere in taking a knee for the America that we all aspire it to be.” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was the first member of Congress to take a knee Monday night.
• Democratic Rep. Al Green plans to force vote to impeach Trump over NFL comments. Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas said Tuesday he plans to force a vote in the House next week to impeach President Trump following the president’s comments on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem. “Mr. Speaker, I rise to denounce these comments that have been made because they have brought discourse to a new low. Mr. Speaker, this is a level of indecency that is unbecoming the presidency. Mr. Speaker, I rise to say to the world that this is not what America is all about,” Green said during a floor speech Tuesday. “Calling people SOBs, and we know what a B is. It’s a dog. Mr. Speaker, I rise because my heart tells me I must do something.
• Fairfax restaurant boycotting NFL: Fairfax Restaurant Stops Showing Football Due to Protests (WMAL) — WASHINGTON (WMAL)–A restaurant in Fairfax is taking a stand when it comes to the NFL protest of the National Anthem. Fat Tuesday’s, which is located at 10673 Braddock Rd. says games will no longer be shown there. In a post on facebook titled “Enough is enough,  RL and Karen Butler say: ” As proud parents of an active duty member of the US Army and a veteran of Afghanistan, we stand on the side of our brave men & women in uniform not the men in sports costumes that take a knee and disrespect our country, our National Anthem, our military and our veterans.  We place a much higher value on our great country then any sporting event. Therefore, we will not be showing any NFL games at Fat Tuesday’s until there is a stop to this foolishness. ”

7am – C         Twice as much Trump? Twitter doubles its character limit on tweets. (The Guardian) – The US president’s favorite social media platform has increased the allowable character limit from 140 to 280 after research found frustration among users. Twitter has doubled the character limit on tweets to allow its users to convey more meaning or emotion – or, in the case of Donald Trump, more elaborate war threats to North Korea. “This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160-character SMS limit,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey, announcing the update on Tuesday. The decision was motivated by research carried out by the social network that showed you can convey double the amount of information per character in languages like Japanese, Korean and Chinese than you can in languages like English, Spanish, Portuguese or French.

7am – D         ‘I Bet You Live In My Neighborhood!’: FIREWORKS On Tucker Over NFL Protests. (Daily Caller) — A heated argument took place on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday as Democratic strategist Scott Bolden and Tucker Carlson debated the NFL protests. Bolden asked Carlson, “Have the police ever brutalized you?” Carlson stated, “[America is] deeply flawed on questions of race, obviously and the police brutality is something that needs to be addressed, I believe that…” Bolden cut in, “And we are not addressing it.” Tucker continued, “However, you are making a larger case that the country itself is a rotten place and my point is for a rich guy like you to say something like that because you have benefited, as have I, as have lots of people like us from this country, to dismiss the whole thing, an entire portion of the population as a immoral, is kind of disgusting actually.”  When Bolden stated “we live in two Americas,” Carlson asked, “Where do you live?,” adding “I bet you live in my neighborhood!” Bolden also referred to Carlson as having “manifest white privilege.”

7am – E         Roger Stone brings theatrics to Capitol Hill. (Politico) — The flamboyant Trump adviser called his three-hour House interview ‘professional.’ Roger Stone finally came face to face Tuesday with the man he bad-mouthed for months: top House Democratic Russia investigator Rep. Adam Schiff. When he left, a swaggering Stone said he was as convinced as ever that the probe is little more than a “political exercise.” But after Schiff and his House Intelligence Committee colleagues grilled Stone for three hours in a closed-door interview at the Capitol, the lawmaker tersely accused Stone of refusing to answer at least one significant question — and suggested the longtime Trump associate could be compelled to return under the threat of a subpoena. Schiff declined to say what question Stone wouldn’t answer, but Stone himself told reporters: He wouldn’t divulge the name of the person who acted as his go-between with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last year. Stone has come under scrutiny for seeming to predict WikiLeaks’ October dump of emails hacked from the account of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – AL WEAVER – political reporter for the Washington Examiner – discussed Congress news: Corker, Alabama primary, tax reform and health care.

• CORKER: Republican Sen. Bob Corker Announces He Won’t Run For Re-Election
• Robert Costa‏ @costareports 13h13 hours ago: Top GOP source tells me to keep an eye on @MarshaBlackburn as a potential Senate candidate since Corker is retiring
• ‘Your move, Clay Travis’! GOP Sen. Bob Corker won’t seek re-election next year (Twitchy)
  • Charlie Spiering @charliespiering: Your move @ClayTravis
  • Allahpundit @allahpundit: CLAY TRAVIS’S PATH TO THE SENATE IS CLEAR
  • Fox Sports analyst Clay Travis‏ @ClayTravis 16h16 hours ago: Bob Corker is not running for reelection to the Senate. Meaning your next Tennessee senator will be this guy
• Alabama Republican Senate primary: Roy Moore defeats Trump-backed Luther Strange. Socially conservative former Alabama chief justice, one of the most controversial US politicians, was removed from state supreme court post twice The former Alabama judge Roy Moore, one of the most controversial figures in Republican politics, is on course to become a US senator – in spite of opposition from Donald Trump. With 95% of the vote in on Tuesday night, Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama supreme court was ahead of appointed incumbent Luther Strange by 55% to 45% in the Republican Senate runoff.
• Trump to sell new tax framework in Indiana Wednesday. President Trump will travel to Indiana Wednesday to promote a new tax-reform framework being produced by congressional Republicans and administration officials, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – Montgomery County Council member Marc Elrich — Councilmember At-Large — on MoCo holding a public hearing Tues night in whether to raise min wage to $15 an hour) 

• Council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large) had presented a revised bill to the Council that addressed concerns about how a wage hike would affect the local economy.
• Revised $15 minimum wage bill gets mixed reviews in Montgomery Co. (WTOP) – WASHINGTON — The latest plan to phase in a $15 an hour minimum wage in Montgomery County got mixed reviews Tuesday night at a council public hearing. The bill is slightly different from one the council approved earlier this year that was vetoed by County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett. The county’s current minimum wage is $11.50 an hour, and under the new plan, businesses with at least 26 employees would have until 2020 to raise wages to $15 an hour. Smaller businesses, nonprofit groups and in-home health care providers would have more time — until 2022 — to boost workers’ pay to the $15 level. But Ron Zimmerman, co-owner of Zimmerman’s Ace Hardware in Burtonsville, thinks the plan would be devastating for him. “It will cause us to lose our business, plain and simple,” he said.
• The Montgomery County Council held public testimony on Tuesday evening on a bill that would raise the minimum wage from the current $11.50 to $15 an hour by 2020, while allowing small businesses and non-profit organizations to phase in the higher wage more slowly. The bill is the second attempt this year to move the county to a $15 minimum wage. In January, County Executive Isiah Leggett vetoed a bill that would have done just that, saying that while he supported the overall concept, he worried about the impact it would have on small businesses and the county’s overall economy. Leggett is taking a similar position on the current bill.
• (WAMU) – Supporters of a $15 minimum wage hike in Montgomery County are trying again, after efforts to raise the minimum wage failed earlier this year. The county’s push for a wage hike started back in 2013, when Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and D.C. all agreed to raise their minimum wages in unison to $11.50 an hour by 2017. Then, earlier this year, the Montgomery County Council voted 5-4 to pass another bill that would raise the minimum wage again, to $15 an hour by 2020. But that effort didn’t make it past County Executive Ike Leggett, who “reluctantly vetoed” the bill at the end of January.

8am – D         LEFT SUDDENLY OBSESSED WITH TRUMP ADMIN SPENDING: NEW TARGET EPA’S SCOTT PRUITT:

• EPA spending almost $25,000 to install a secure phone booth for Scott Pruitt. (Washington Post) – The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $25,000 to construct a secure, soundproof communications booth in the office of Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to government contracting records. The agency signed a $24,570 contract earlier this summer with Acoustical Solutions, a Richmond-based company, for a “privacy booth for the administrator.” The company sells and installs an array of sound-dampening and privacy products, from ceiling baffles to full-scale enclosures like the one purchased by the EPA. The project’s scheduled completion date is Oct. 9, according to the contract.
• Pruitt diverts EPA agents to protect him 24/7, instead of protecting YOU from pollution (Red Green and Blue blog) — “Back in May, Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton at the New York Times reported how Environmental Protection Agency-hating EPA chief Scott Pruitt was instilling a sense of paranoia in the agency’s offices. Among other things, they wrote that he required round-the-clock bodyguards to accompany him even when he was at EPA headquarters. Pruitt is the first chief in the EPA’s 47-year history to order bodyguards 24 hours a day.”
• Washington Post headline: “At EPA, guarding the chief pulls agents from pursuing environmental crimes”  Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis at The Washington Post report Wednesday: Scott Pruitt’s round-the-clock personal security detail, which demands triple the manpower of his predecessors at the Environmental Protection Agency, has prompted officials to rotate in special agents from around the country who otherwise would be investigating environmental crimes. The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance has summoned agents from various cities to serve two-week stints helping guard Pruitt in recent months. And while hiring in many departments is frozen, the agency has sought an exception to hire additional full-time staff to protect Pruitt. Shortly after the former Oklahoma attorney general assumed his post in February, aides requested 24/7 federal protection for him.

8am – E         Clarence Thomas finally honored at African American History Museum. An exhibit honoring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas opened Sunday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. For much of its inaugural year, the museum only acknowledged Anita Hill, the he woman who accused Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearing. The move prompted criticism from  An exhibit features testimonies underscoring Hill’s courage and the surge of women’s activism that ensued, while making only a peripheral reference to the nation’s second black Supreme Court justice. Now an updated exhibit called “The Supreme Court,” honors both black justices who have sat upon the nation’s highest court.