Washington Examiner's Susan Ferrechio, Gordon Chang, AAA's Lon Anderson and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday morning.
Mornings on the Mall
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Hosts: Brian Wilson and guest host Susan Ferrechio
5am – A/B/C North Korea's Internet back up after disruption. (CNN) — North Korea's Internet was back up Tuesday after a more than nine-hour outage, according to Dyn Research, a company that monitors Internet performance. The disruption came amid an escalating war of words between the United States and North Korea over a massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures. "Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn't be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently," Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research, said when the Internet was dow
5am – D New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Calls For Pause In Protests After Police Killings. (Reuters) – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio implored protesters on Monday to wait until after the funerals of two policemen shot dead in an ambush before resuming rallies that have roiled the city and beyond over the deaths of black men at the hands of police. But de Blasio's plea was quickly dismissed by several activist groups that vowed to continue protests that have stirred the city daily after grand juries chose not to indict police officers who killed Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. "It's a time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things we will talk about in due time," de Blasio said in a speech to a charity with close ties to the New York Police Department, two days after Rafael Ramos, 40, and his partner, Wenjian Liu, 28, were killed. The men were shot as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn, and their deaths electrified tensions that had been coursing for months between City Hall, the police department and the reform-minded protesters who voted for de Blasio in large numbers.
5am – E Joe Cocker dies at age 70. LONDON (AP) — British singer Joe Cocker is dead at age 70. His London-based agent, Barrie Marshall, said Cocker died early Monday of lung cancer in Colorado, where he has lived for the past two decades. Cocker was known for a memorable Woodstock performance and cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends.” The ballad “You Are So Beautiful,” with Cocker’s voice cracking on the final emotional note, was a Top Ten hit in 1975. He reached the top of the charts in the 1980s with the duet “Up Where We Belong,” with Jennifer Warnes, that appeared in the movie “An Officer and a Gentlemen.” Cocker also had hits with Randy Newman’s song, “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “When the Night Comes.”
6am – A/B/C Q & A with Susan Ferrechio
- Susan previews Congress in January
- IRS Targeted ‘Icky’ Conservative Groups. Top IRS officials specifically targeted tea party groups and misled the public about its secret political targeting program led by ex-official Lois Lerner, according to a bombshell new congressional report. The Daily Caller has obtained an advance copy of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report set to be released Tuesday morning that definitively proves malicious intent by the IRS to improperly block conservative groups that an IRS adviser deemed “icky.” (That’s right. “Icky.”) “The Committee has identified eight senior leaders who were in a position to prevent or to stop the IRS’s targeting of conservative applicants,” the Oversight report states. “Each of these leaders could have and should have done more to prevent the IRS’s targeting of conservative tax-exempt applicants.”
6am – D Newly freed Cuban spy's wife pregnant — with a little help from U.S. Gerardo Hernandez, a Cuban spy recently freed from a U.S. prison, touches the belly of his pregnant wife, Adriana Perez, during a concert in Havana on Dec. 20. They are expecting a girl. (Associated Press) — Cuban spy came home to a very pregnant wife — thanks to artificial insemination facilitated by the U.S. The release of five Cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States has been a cause celebre here for years — the one issue that officials constantly harped on, seeing the incarceration of the men and denial of access to their families as the ultimate injustice. So when the three final spies came home in the last few days as part of a diplomatic trade that would clear the way for new U.S.-Cuban relations, more than a few eyebrows were raised to see the grand belly of one of the men’s wives. Gerardo Hernandez and his wife, Adriana Perez, were 2,000 miles apart for years as he served two life sentences and she, also an intelligence agent, was repeatedly denied a visa to the U.S. How then could she be so clearly pregnant? She and Hernandez met with Cuban President Raul Castro over the weekend and then attended an honorary concert with Cuban great Silvio Rodriguez. She wiped tears from her cheeks; he patted her bountiful stomach. U.S. officials said Monday a procedure involving artificial insemination was made possible as something of a humanitarian gesture and thanks to the entreaties of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).
6am – E Bad Santa? Va. woman alleges Santa she hired for party robbed her home of gifts. Leesburg,Va.–(WTTG)–Jolly old Saint Nicholas has left one Virginia family a little less cheery. Andrea Dombrowski says the Santa who visited her house Friday night didn't just give presents. “It's pretty upsetting,” she said. “I expect Santa to bring the gifts, not take them.” Every year, the Dombrowskis have a big bash at their Leesburg home. This weekend, about 90 guests came to celebrate the holidays. They hired someone to dress up as Santa. “He would get up, walk around, mingle with guests, pose for pictures,” she said. They provided a basket full of gifts to hand out to kids. “According to several guests, he kept going in and out of the front door several times,” said Dombrowski. The guests say Santa definitely had a drink or two downstairs at the bar. One child says he saw Santa digging through people's jacket pockets in the coat room. And a couple of the neighborhood kids say they saw Santa hiding something behind the sofa.
7am – A INTERVIEW – GORDON CHANG – author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World" @GordonGChang
- North Korea's Internet back up after disruption
- Sony hack: North Korea threatens US as row deepens
7am – B How did motor oil end up in D.C.’s water supply? WASHINGTON (WJLA) – The drinking water has been declared safe, but many residents in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood remain skeptical, amidst an investigation into how motor oil ended up in the water supply. That discovery prompted a three-day water advisory for residents and businesses last week; it’s now sparking a call for answers. D.C. Water is currently investigating to find out how the oil product got into the water supply. People in the affected area told 7 On Your Side they want to know exactly how it happened, and some want to be made whole for what they lost. We discovered there are known leaking petroleum tanks near the area. The water advisory spared few. “There was a really strong odor of gas that night in our apartment,” said Justin Cerra. “It was so bad, we left and stayed in a hotel.” But packing up and leaving for some, especially business owners, simply wasn’t an option.
7am – C Susan previews the agenda for Congress in January.
7am – D iPads, tablets, smartphones disrupt good sleep, study finds. (Washington Post) — Basking in the blue glow of iPads, smartphones and other electronic devices before bedtime could be messing up our sleep patterns more profoundly than we realize, and even affecting our long-term health, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "It may be having a greater impact than we previously thought," said Anne-Marie Chang, a professor at Penn State University and a co-author of the study, which was conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. A growing body of evidence has suggested what many people have experienced firsthand – that the pervasive glow of electronic gadgets can hinder a good night's sleep. But researchers behind Monday's study, which was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, set out to decipher what changes in the body cause those disruptions. During a two-week inpatient experiment involving a dozen adults, some participants were asked to read on an iPad for four hours each night before bedtime, for five consecutive nights. Others read printed books in dim light. After a week, the groups switched. Researchers found that participants using iPads displayed reduced levels of melatonin, a hormone that typically increases in the evening and helps induce sleepiness. They took longer to fall asleep, and spent less time in restorative REM, or rapid-eye movement, sleep.
7am – E Joe Cocker dies at age 70. LONDON (AP) — British singer Joe Cocker is dead at age 70. His London-based agent, Barrie Marshall, said Cocker died early Monday of lung cancer in Colorado, where he has lived for the past two decades. Cocker was known for a memorable Woodstock performance and cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends.” The ballad “You Are So Beautiful,” with Cocker’s voice cracking on the final emotional note, was a Top Ten hit in 1975. He reached the top of the charts in the 1980s with the duet “Up Where We Belong,” with Jennifer Warnes, that appeared in the movie “An Officer and a Gentlemen.” Cocker also had hits with Randy Newman’s song, “You Can Leave Your Hat On” and “When the Night Comes.”
8am – A INTERVIEW – LON ANDERSON – Managing Director, Public and Government Affairs, AAA Mid-Atlantic
- Over 90 Percent Of D.C. Area Holiday Travelers Projected To Make Journey In A Vehicle. Of the nearly six million people who live in the D.C. metro area, 41 percent are expected to engage in holiday travel, a 3.3 percent increase from 2013.And of those 2,450,700 people, 91 percent (!) are expected to travel by vehicle, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. John Townsend of AAA attributes this 3.5 percent increase from last year on falling gas prices.
- Natural Gas Slides to Near a Two-Year Low. (WSJ) — Unseasonably Warm December Helps Allay Concerns About Supply Shortage. Mild temperatures across the U.S. have sent natural-gas futures tumbling to their lowest level in nearly two years, more good news for consumers already reaping the benefits of a 30% decline in gasoline prices. Natural-gas prices dropped 9% Monday, their largest decline since February. It extended a losing streak to three sessions since the government said gas stockpiles rose above year-ago levels for the first time in 2014. Record U.S. oil-and-gas production, which has played a major role in driving the 48% decline in crude prices since June, is overwhelming tepid demand for home-heating fuels amid an unseasonably warm December. Many investors who earlier this year placed bets on rising gas prices have had to reverse course and cover those bets, as strong production has now closed a stockpile shortage that had lingered for nearly a year.
- Rainstorm to bring wet Christmas to eastern USA. (USA Today) — A mix of drenching rain, severe thunderstorms and howling winds will bring a wet Christmas to much of the East, while snow and rain hits the Northwest and Rockies. Wednesday (Christmas Eve): Rain, thunderstorms and wind will envelop much of the East Coast, including the Interstate 95 corridor, the Weather Channel said. Despite the rain, record high temperatures in the 50s and 60s are possible from Boston to Washington. Major flight delays are likely Wednesday at the Northeast city hubs, along with Charlotte, Atlanta and Florida's main airports because of high winds, heavy rain, thunderstorms and low clouds, The Weather Channel said. Wind, rain and thunderstorms could cause delays as far west as Cincinnati and Detroit.
8am – B Gruber comes to the Supreme Court. (The Hill) — Jonathan Gruber has arrived at the Supreme Court. The controversial consultant's name appears six times in a 129-page opening brief for plaintiffs challenging ObamaCare in the blockbuster case King v. Burwell. The case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court on March 4, could erase healthcare subsidies in dozens of states. The plaintiffs, represented by Competitive Enterprise Institute, argue the language of the Affordable Care Act only allows healthcare subsidies to be distributed in states that created their own exchanges. That would exclude the millions of people who have obtained coverage through the federal site, HealthCare.gov. Top Democrats, including those who authored the law, have chalked up the issue to a drafting error while warning that $65 billion in funding could be lost if the lawsuit succeeds. In their opening brief, the plaintiffs plan to cite a 2012 speech by Gruber, when he defies the administration and says states that don’t establish their own exchange can't legally get tax credits. “I hope that that’s a blatant enough political reality that states will get their act together and realize there are billions of dollars at stake here in setting up these exchanges, and that they’ll do it,” Gruber, an MIT economist, says in the speech, which was later posted on YouTube.
8am – C Nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center hold one-day strike. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON — D.C.’s Medstar Washington Hospital is open and operating normally Monday despite a strike by dozens of its nurses. The strike began at 7 a.m. Monday and is expected to last 24 hours. “The strike, while unfortunate, has not affected our ability to care for patients,” says a statement from MedStar Washington Hospital. The nurses claim the hospital, located at 110 Irving Street in Northwest, hasn’t treated them fairly and doesn’t put enough nurses on the schedule. Also, the nurses say hospital executives refuse to fairly address matters of health, safety and equity for patients and nurses. On Monday, the nurses will hold a rally to voice their frustrations and speak out about nurses’ need to have a greater voice in patient care decisions. The hospital says it offered an 8 percent raise the three-year life of a nurse’s contract, as well as premium pay for off-shifts, retention bonuses and additional payments to those who take on added responsibilities.
8am – D INTERVIEW – LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm
- Growth: WASHINGTON (AP) – At the height of the holiday shopping season, the government is ready to say today just how well the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter. The Commerce Department is scheduled to release the third-quarter gross domestic product numbers for July through September. Commerce also will issue reports on durable goods for November and on personal income and spending for last month. A preliminary report last month said the economy expanded at a healthy 3.9 percent annual rate.
- Natural Gas Slides to Near a Two-Year Low. (WSJ) — Unseasonably Warm December Helps Allay Concerns About Supply Shortage. Mild temperatures across the U.S. have sent natural-gas futures tumbling to their lowest level in nearly two years, more good news for consumers already reaping the benefits of a 30% decline in gasoline prices. Natural-gas prices dropped 9% Monday, their largest decline since February.
TOMORROW: Susan Ferrechio, KT McFarland, Janice Dean and John Nolte
