WMAL News Director John Matthews, Mercatus Center’s Michael Farren, Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian, Fairfax School Board Member Elizabeth Schultz, Author and Daily Caller contributor Derek Hunter joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, June 18, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Tipping the pay scales: Initiative 77 could dramatically alter D.C. restaurant culture (Washington Post) – Thea Bryan was shocked by how her bartending income plunged by half when business was slow at Indique in Northwest Washington. Tired of depending on tips on top of $5 an hour paid by her boss, the single mother is fighting to make D.C. restaurants and bars pay workers like her the full minimum wage.  A few miles away, Frank Mills also makes $5 an hour as a bartender at Jack Rose Dining Saloon and doesn’t want a raise. He earns as much as $36 an hour with tips — and says Bryan’s efforts could hurt his bank account.  Bryan and Mills are on opposite sides of Initiative 77, which aims to shake up the relationship between customers, workers and restaurant owners in the city’s thriving dining scene. The question may be the most contentious — and confusing — issue on the ballot Tuesday in the District’s primary election.  It also is a fight that extends beyond the nation’s capital, playing out in statehouses, city halls and polling places around the country as the restaurant industry and labor advocates tussle over how servers should be paid.

5am – D INTERVIEW — JOHN MATTHEWS — WMAL News Director — reflect on passing of former WMAL host Frank Harden

5am – E Parents face $132,000 claim after kid knocks over sculpture (ABC News) – Parents of a 5-year-old Kansas boy were hit with a $132,000 bill after their son knocked over an art sculpture on display at a local community center.  Surveillance video captured the little boy reaching for the sculpture, called “Aphrodite di Kansas City” on display in the lobby of the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, when it toppled over.  Then a few days later, the family received a $132,000 claim from the city of Overland Park’s insurance company, saying that the piece had been damaged beyond repair.  “You’re responsible for the supervision of a minor child… your failure to monitor could be considered negligent,” the insurance letter read in part.  “I was surprised, absolutely, more so offended to be called negligent,” said the boy’s mother Sarah Goodman. “They were treating this like a crime scene.”

6am – A DOJ News/IG report fallout:

• The Hillary Clinton email probe takes center stage Monday when the FBI’s top man and the Justice Department’s inspector general testify on Capitol Hill (Fox News) – FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz are expected to testify Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Horowitz’s bombshell report on the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s personal email server … Horowitz’s report, released Thursday, singled out former FBI Director James Comey for harsh criticism and referred five other bureau employees for potential disciplinary action. Most notably, Horowitz found that anti-Trump text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page “potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations.” However, the report also noted the FBI’s decision not to prosecute Clinton in July 2016 was not motivated by political bias against then-candidate Donald Trump.

6am – B Kellyanne Conway: ‘Nobody likes’ policy separating migrant kids at the border (NBC News) – Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that “nobody likes” the separation of migrant children from their parents at the nation’s southern border but took issue with the idea that the Trump administration is using the children to force Democrats to the table on border security.  “As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has a conscience … I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,” Conway said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.  But Conway also repeated President Donald Trump’s assertion that the burden is on Democrats to end the separations — while also rejecting the idea that the White House is using the public outcry over the separations as a way to exert leverage over Democrats resistant to Trump’s most stringent proposed overhauls to the immigration system.  “I certainly don’t want anybody to use these kids as leverage,” she said, adding that she objects “very forcefully” to that implication.

6am – C Mexico’s World Cup goal against Germany may have triggered ‘artificial earthquake’ (Fox News) – Mexico’s FIFA World Cup goal that led its team to an upset win over Germany on Sunday triggered so much excitement that it may have caused what officials called an “artificial earthquake” in Mexico City.  SIMMSA, a “seismic monitoring network” in Mexico, tweeted that at least two sensors inside the capital city detected a quake just after 11:30 a.m.  The agency said it “possibly” could’ve been caused by “massive jumps” during Mexico’s goal during the 35th minute.  Mexico stunned Germany, the defending champion, in its opening match at the 2018 World Cup. Hirving Lozano’s goal was enough to secure the 1-0 win for Mexico, despite the Germans dominating possession and fighting desperately to get back into the match.  “I don’t know if it’s the biggest victory in (Mexico’s) history, but one of the biggest for sure,” Lozano said after the game. “It’s great to start on the right foot when you are playing the world champions.”

6am – D INTERVIEW — MICHAEL FARREN – Research Fellow in the Project for the Study of American Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University – discussed the proposed Initiative 77 that will impact D.C. restaurants

6am – E Roger Stone: Russian wanted Trump to pay $2M for dirt on Clinton during the campaign (The Hill) – Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone said that he met with a Russian man during the 2016 campaign who wanted President Trump to pay $2 million for damaging information on Hillary Clinton.  The Washington Post reported Sunday that Stone met with the man in May 2016, in a meeting set up by Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo. The meeting was previously unreported and follows Stone’s denials that he had any contact with Russians during the campaign.  Stone told the Post that the man had requested Trump pay $2 million for dirt on Clinton, but that Stone rejected the offer.  “You don’t understand Donald Trump,” Stone said he told the man. “He doesn’t pay for anything.”  Special counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating the meeting, Caputo told the Post.  Both Stone and Caputo, who did not reveal the interaction to congressional investigators, alleged that the man, who called himself Henry Greenberg, was an FBI informant.

6am – F John Travolta’s ‘Gotti’ Gets Rare Zero Percent Score on Rotten Tomatoes (Hollywood Reporter) – John Travolta’s new film, Gotti, a biopic about the late mobster John Gotti, hits theaters Friday, and it’s already earned a rare distinction — a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie-review site.  As of noon PT, the film had collected just 13 reviews, and all 13 are considered “rotten.”  Travolta is no stranger to that dubious notoriety, though. Wikipedia’s list of movies with a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes includes his 1983 film Staying Alive and his 1993 film, Look Who’s Talking Now.

7am – A INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst – discussed the latest DOJ news   

7am – B Pot, polls and pizza: Maryland Democratic candidates for governor end debate on high note (Baltimore Sun) – All six Democratic candidates for Maryland governor said during a debate Thursday that they support legalizing recreational use of marijuana.  But only two — Ben Jealous and Alec Ross — admitted to using the drug.  Jealous said that, years ago, he had smoked marijuana with his friend, comedian Dave Chappelle. Chappelle has been stumping in Maryland for the former NAACP leader.  Ross, who said he had used marijuana as a much younger man, dismissed concerns that it is a “gateway drug.”  “If it’s a gateway to anything, it’s a gateway to pizza,” Ross said.

7am – C Virginia School Board Thrusts Through Sex Ed Changes Despite 90% Public Disapproval (Daily Caller) – A Virginia school board thrust through changes to its sex education curriculum Thursday despite around 90 percent of public respondents disapproving of the changes.  The Fairfax County School Board passed changes including the replacement of “biological sex” with “sex assigned at birth” and the teaching of an HIV drug with “life-threatening side effects,” reported Fox 5. School board member Elizabeth Schultz reported the vote as 10-0 with herself and one other board member, Tom Wilson, abstaining, when speaking with The Daily Caller News Foundation.  Starting in fall 2018, students enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) will learn about the HIV prevention drug Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), which “can cause serious, life-threatening side effects” including “a buildup of lactic acid in the blood (lactic acidosis) and liver problems,” according to the National Institutes of Health.         

7am – D INTERVIEW — JOHN MATTHEWS — WMAL News Director — reflect on passing of former WMAL host Frank Harden

7am – E Trump could have to wait until 2020 to get full answers on bias in Russia probe (Daily Caller) – President Donald Trump may be in the midst of his 2020 re-election campaign by the time he gets answers on whether biased federal law enforcement agents took improper steps in investigating members of his 2016 campaign.  The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, in March announced a probe into potential FISA abuses in the FBI’s surveillance of Carter Page, as well as the FBI’s use of a confidential source and potential “other issues that may arise during the course of the review.”  Horowitz on Thursday released his report into the FBI’s handling the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. The IG first launched that investigation in October 2016, following requests from several congressional Democrats.  If Horowitz takes as long on the Russia report as he did on the Clinton email report — 18 months — he won’t release his findings until September 2019, at which point Trump’s re-election campaign will be well underway.

8am – A INTERVIEW — MARK KRIKORIAN –  a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) – discussed the immigration bills in Congress

8am – B/C INTERVIEW – ELIZABETH SCHULTZ – Fairfax County school board member – discussed recent changes to the counties sex education curriculum  

8am – D/E INTERVIEW – DEREK HUNTER — author of new book “Outrage, Inc.: How the Liberal Mob Ruined Science, Journalism, and Hollywood” (book comes out on Tuesday) and a contributing editor and co-founder of The Daily Caller – discussed the release of his new book