Cully Stimson, Sen. Ben Cardin, Stuart Varney and Robert Thomson “Dr. Gridlock” joined WMAL on Thursday.

Listen here to Thursday’s show!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C INTERVIEW: CULLY STIMSON – former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs and currently Manager, National Security Law Program and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation

• Obama order clears way for private ransom payments

5am – D         Bobby Jindal Enters Presidential Race, Saying ‘It Is Time for a Doer.’ KENNER, La. — Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity plummeted as the state struggled with a $1.6 billion shortfall, announced Wednesday that he is running for president in 2016. Mr. Jindal, 44, an Indian-American, joins the crowded field of Republican contenders in what even his supporters call a long-shot candidacy. Standing before a giant American flag at an event center in this New Orleans suburb, Mr. Jindal presented himself as a policy writer whose résumé — as a two-term governor and a former congressman who once led the state health agency and the University of Louisiana system — sets him apart. He said that Louisiana cut the number of “government bureaucrats” by more than 30,000 positions, and that the state now had the highest population in its history, with more people moving to Louisiana than leaving it.

5am – E         Metro News:

• Bus drivers forced to ‘go’ on the bus because they don’t have access to restrooms, union says. WASHINGTON (AP) — A union leader says Metro bus drivers in the Washington area are frequently forced to urinate while on board the bus because there’s nowhere else to go. Union official James Madaras made the surprising statement Wednesday during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing on a malfunction that killed a Metro subway passenger in January. Madaras was responding to a hypothetical question about whether a driver would face discipline for urinating on a bus. He said, “Urinating on a bus is an issue that we deal with on a regular basis.”
• Union: Metro workers fear discipline for reporting problems. WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees of Washington’s Metro transit agency have become more comfortable reporting safety lapses through a program that allows them to do so anonymously, but some are still reluctant to speak out because they fear retribution, a union leader said Wednesday. The union official’s comments came as federal investigators examined Metro’s efforts to enhance safety in the second day of a hearing about a fatal electrical malfunction in January. One subway passenger died and more than 80 others were sickened by smoke after a problem with the electrified third rail caused a train to fill with smoke inside a tunnel.
• Hogan likely to announce decision on Purple Line’s future on Thursday. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has scheduled a major announcement about “transportation infrastructure” for Thursday afternoon, raising speculation that he has made a decision on whether to build the long-planned Purple Line project, a 16-mile rail line that would connect two Washington suburbs. An aide would not confirm on Wednesday if the news conference would address the future of the Purple Line, which would run from New Carrollton in Prince George’s County to Bethesda in Montgomery. Earlier this week, the governor’s office said Hogan would make an announcement about the project before the end of the month.

6am – A/B/C Louis Farrakhan Slams American Flag. (WMAL.com) — Louis Farrakhan addressed hundreds Wednesday at the Metropolitan AME Church in D.C. Religious leaders from various background joined Farrakhan to talk about the Millions for Justice Mobilization taking place in D.C. in October. His speech took an angry turn when he said white people don’t care about the people who died in the South Carolina church shootings. “White folks march with you because they don’t want you upsetting the city,” he said in reference to protesting against the South Carolina shootings. His comments were met by cheers and applause. He added his disdain for the North Carolina police who fed Dylann Roof, the Charleston church shooting suspect, Burger King after he was arrested. Farrakhan also attacked the American flag, saying “What the hell is the use of us paying allegiance to a flag under which we get no justice?”

6am – D         Meryl Streep Is Pushing Congress to Finally Revive the Equal Rights Amendment. On Tuesday, Meryl Streep sent all 535 members of Congress a letter urging them to bring back the Equal Rights Amendment in order to finally ratify it into the Constitution. “I am writing to ask you to stand up for equality—for your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife or yourself—by actively supporting the Equal Rights Amendment,” the letter read. Accompanying Streep’s letter was a copy of “Equal Means Equal” written by EPA Coalition president Jessica Neuwirth. “The ERA is not just a women’s rights issue—it will have a meaningful benefit for the whole human family,” she added. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment back in 1972 and thirty-five states ratified it but that was three ratifications short of the constitutional requirement.

6am – E         Latest Iran Deal News:

• US, allies ready to offer Iran nuclear equipment, document reveals.
• Iran’s supreme leader balks as nuclear deal language days ahead of deadline:
• U.S. troops sharing a base with pro-Iran militia only latest sign of Ill-fated embrace of Iran.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — SEN BEN CARDIN – D-MD, senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — disccused the OPM breach, Obama’s new hostage policy, Donald Trump and the Iran deal.

7am – B         Larry Kudlow Considering Senate Bid in NY or CT. (National Review) — Larry Kudlow and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have exchanged flirtations in the past. Now, the former Reagan economic aide and the organization tasked with protecting the GOP’s Senate majority in 2016 are once again mulling the possibility of Kudlow challenging a Democratic incumbent for the Senate in one of the country’s bluest states. A source with knowledge of the situation says that, in the NRSC’s search for candidates to take on Chuck Schumer in New York and Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut, it has landed on Kudlow, 67, who owns residences in both states, as a potential challenger. The organization, according to the source, is planning to conduct polls on the potential matchups.

7am – C         Jim Webb on Confederate Flag: ‘Respect Complicated History of Civil War’ (Weekly Standard) — Jim Webb, the former Virginia senator who may run for the Democratic nomination for president, released a statement on Facebook regarding the Confederate battle flag and the debate over its continued use in state-funded memorials.

Here’s the message: “This is an emotional time and we all need to think through these issues with a care that recognizes the need for change but also respects the complicated history of the Civil War. The Confederate Battle Flag has wrongly been used for racist and other purposes in recent decades. It should not be used in any way as a political symbol that divides us.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – STUART VARNEY – Anchor, Varney and Company, Fox Business Network, weekdays at 9 AM

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• After 45 years in the business, James Taylor nabbed his first chart-topper: (Forbes) — The people have showered Mr. James Taylor with love this week (if you’re a fan, you’ll understand the interesting choice of prose) by finally giving him a number one album. After 45 years in the business, the legendary singer-songwriter has nabbed his first chart topper with his seventeenth studio album, Before This World. The record has been a long time coming…but not as long as the chart achievement. Before is Taylor’s first album of original material in thirteen years, and what a welcome back it is. The album is his twelfth top ten, and with 97,000 units moved, easily this week’s best-seller.
• Saved By The Bell’s ‘Screech’ is being sentenced today over a pub stabbing. He is charged with carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct. SAVED BY THE BELL actor Dustin Diamond is scheduled to be sentenced on two misdemeanor charges stemming from a bar-room stabbing in Wisconsin. The 38-year-old – known for his role as Screech on Saved by the Bell – is set to face a Wisconsin judge today on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct. The first misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of nine months in prison.
• Mexico threatens to boycott the Miss Universe pageant over due to Trump’s statements. (NY Daily News) – The organization that picks Miss Mexico may pull out of the Miss Universe pageant because of disparaging remarks made about the country by contest owner Donald Trump in his bewildering presidential speech last week. Lupita Jones, who was Miss Universe 24 years ago, said she may withdraw Mexico’s contestant because “in this moment, I feel that our representative’s integrity and dignity is at risk,” she told Mexican broadcaster Radio Channel, KNBC-TV reported Wednesday. Jones said Trump’s remarks about building “a great, great wall” on the Mexican border and making the country pay for it were insulting and misleading. Most immigrants enter the U.S. in search of better lives for themselves and their families, she said.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – ROBERT THOMSON – aka Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock

• TOPICS: Latest news about DC metro & NTSB:
• What did we learn from NTSB hearings about WMATA this week?
• What can we expect from the metro this summer? Will there be improvements? Will there be more issues as they implement fixes to the metro?
• Hogan likely to announce decision on Purple Line’s future on Thursday
• Union: Metro workers fear discipline for reporting problems

8am – B         Illinois Special Election Heats Up as Mike Flynn Challenges Lahood’s Economic Ties. From the Illinois Review: Although early voting has already commenced in the 18th CD’s special election GOP primary to replace resigned Congressman Aaron Schock, the campaign isn’t over. Michael Flynn launched a new attack of “crony capitalism” on State Senator Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) this week.  Flynn’s campaign points to a vote LaHood made in the Illinois Senate on May 30, 2012, that established in East Peoria a new “Tax Increment District III.” The law required the city hire to lawyers who would confirm each year that the city was in full compliance. This was the third such zone established by the city. LaHood is an associate of the law firm East Peoria employs – Miller, Hall, & Triggs.

8am – C         Man awarded $500K after recording his doctor insulting him during procedure. RESTON, Va. — A Virginia man has been awarded a large financial settlement after he apparently recorded his doctors belittling and insulting him during a colonoscopy. The Washington Post reports that the man hit record on his cell phone during the procedure in order to save any instructions his doctor would give him. When the man later played the audio, he heard the anesthesiologist and other medical personnel make several comments, including joking that a rash the patient had was syphilis and discussing which nurse would have to talk to him after the procedure.

Last-minute Father’s Day lottery ticket gift worth $1M. JEANNETTE, Pa. (AP) — A scratch-off lottery ticket bought as a last-minute Father’s Day gift has turned a truck driver into an instant millionaire. Joseph Morrah, 61, was given the winning $1 Million Payout ticket on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. His daughter, Christina Morrah, put the ticket in a card she gave to him. But his wife, Debbie Morrah, said it was her idea to buy the $20 ticket.

8am – D         FARRKHAN RIPS AMERICAN FLAG.