Brad Thor, DDOT’s Leif Dormsjo, Katie Phang & Bill Wilson joined WMAL’s mornings show!

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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – PROFESSOR JOHN BANZHAF – Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School

• Judge upholds cancellation of Redskins trademarks in a legal and symbolic setback for team

5am – D         Loudoun County Public Schools modify midterm, final exams policy. (Loudoun Times Mirror) — Loudoun County Public Schools will no longer require midterm or final exams. The teachers still have the choice to administer them, but they will no longer count for 20 percent of a student’s final grade. Teachers will be allowed to administer summative assessments, typically at the end of a unit, course, semester, program or school year. According to Loudoun County Public Schools, this will allow teachers to evaluate student learning, skill attainment and achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period, without having an exam weigh so heavily that students cannot recover from the impact of one low assessment grade. The high schools’ designated exam week calendar will also no longer be in place. The eight days of early release for high school students at the end of semesters will now be regular days in order to increase instruction. The policy also requires that school administrators and teachers continue to coordinate the scheduling of assessments to ensure students are not required to take numerous assessments on any one day. During the 2014-15 school year, Loudoun County Public Schools studied the value of offering midterm and final exams. Stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, principals and administrators were surveyed and the results were discussed by the Superintendent’s Cabinet, the School Board’s Curriculum and Instruction Committee and presented to the Board. After reviewing the extensive feedback, Loudoun County Public Schools made the decision to modify midterm and final exam practices on Tuesday, July 7.

5am – E         White House petitioned to yank Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Washington Examiner/Paul Bedard) — A national sexual assault prevention group is demanding that President Obama revoke Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom. Promoting Awareness–Victim Empowerment, has initiated a petition on Whitehouse.gov to push the administration to take action against the comic who in July 2002 was presented the prestigious award by former President George W. Bush. “The presidential medal of freedom is the highest honor award to an American civilian,” said Angela Rose, executive director of the group. “The list of those receiving this honor include America’s finest citizens – from Mother Teresa to Eunice Kennedy Shriver to Meryl Streep. Bill Cosby’s name does not belong among this distinguished list.” In newly released court documents, Cosby said he used a drug to have sex with women, reopening a case against him from several former female associates.

6am – A/B/C GOP Chief Reince Priebus Calls Donald Trump to Tell Him to ‘Tone It Down’ Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called presidential candidate Donald Trump and asked him to pull back his rhetoric on immigration, a source familiar with the conversation told NBC News on Wednesday. The source, who asked not to be identified, said Priebus made the request to “tone it down” during an almost hour-ong conversation covering a wide range of issues when he returned an earlier call from Trump. The Washington Post, citing Republican donors and consultants who’d been briefed on the conversation, first reported earlier Wednesday that Priebus decided to “reach out” to Trump under pressure from influential Republicans concerned that the real estate mogul-turned-TV-star-turned-politician was embarrassing the party with his recent comments on immigration. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best,” Trump said last month when he announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards, and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW — LEIF DORMSJO – Director, District Department of Transportation (DDOT)

• Alleypalooza kicks off in D.C. AlleyPalooza is a campaign that will repair or renovate 64 alleys throughout the District in eight weeks.
• Car ownership is becoming increasingly irrelevant in Washington, DC. Our nation’s capital is morphing into a transit paradise for millennials with an aversion to having a car payment. The city’s glut of millennials is an attractive audience for start-ups looking to reinvent transportation for the digital age. Split, which launched in D.C. in late May, is similar to Uber and Lyft, yet is focused on pooling riders together so it can offer better deals.
• DC Metro: Metro employees and union claim new train operators not properly trained
• Streetcar: What’s the latest update about the streetcar?

6am – E         Keith Olbermann, ESPN to Part Ways Once Again. (Hollywood Reporter) — The departure follows a point of contention over delivering “commentary” on his ESPN2 program. Keith Olbermann is exiting ESPN once again. The television personality, who rejoined the sports network in August 2013, won’t be renewing his deal to anchor his ESPN2 program. The news follows a THR report on July 1, noting that ESPN management floated an ultimately unworkable caveat: that Olbermann cease engaging in commentary. “Keith is a tremendous talent who has consistently done timely, entertaining and thought-provoking work since returning to ESPN,” the network said in a statement. “While the show’s content was distinctive and extremely high quality, we ultimately made a business decision to move in another direction. We wish Keith nothing but the best and trust that his skill and ability will lead him to another promising endeavor.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – KATIE PHANG – Fox News legal analyst, trial attorney, former prosecutor and Partner at Berger Singerman, based in Miami, FL.

• REDSKINS LOGO LEGAL BATTLE: Judge upholds cancellation of Redskins trademarks in a legal and symbolic setback for team.   ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of the Washington Redskins’ trademark registration, ruling that the team name may be disparaging to Native Americans. The ruling by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee affirms an earlier finding by an administrative appeal board. Bruce ordered the federal Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the registration.   Lee emphasized in his 70-page ruling that the organization is still free to use the name if it wishes — the team would just lose some legal protections that go along with federal registration of a trademark. The team had sued to overturn a ruling against it by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The team argued that cancellation of its trademark infringed on its free-speech rights because it required the government to judge whether the name is offensive. The organization can appeal.
• Baltimore Mayor Ousts Police Commissioner in Wake of Riots. WASHINGTON — The Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony W. Batts, who arrived in that city three years ago pledging change but lost the confidence of many in his rank and file in the wake of riots in April, was ousted Wednesday by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who said he had become “a distraction” that hindered efforts to fight a recent surge in violent crime. The mayor acted just hours after the police union issued a report critical of the department’s response to the unrest set off by the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody. But Ms. Rawlings-Blake insisted she was responding to a “crime surge,” and not acting to placate the union, whose report said the riots were preventable.
• IS COSBY A “PUBLIC SERVANT” Because He’s a “Public Moralist”? NPR: The Cosby Revelation: How A Decade-Old Deposition Came To Light — “Perhaps the most intriguing part is that Judge Robreno concluded that Cosby should be thought of more as a “public servant.” Previous courts have held that public servants, or politicians, give up some of the privacy protections afforded to regular citizens or even public figures. The judge argued that while Cosby is clearly a public figure, when he talks about issues of public policy like unwed mothers and crime, he becomes a “public moralist,” which, like it might for a public servant, opens him up to “legitimate public scrutiny.”

7am – B         Trump Highlights:

• Trump Slams Jonah Goldberg: A Guy That Can’t Buy a Pair of Pants!
• Trump Denies Illegals at DC Hotel in NBC Interview.

7am – C         Election Official Says Letting Non-Citizens Vote In D.C. Elections Would Face Hurdles. (WAMU) — D.C. legislators on Wednesday heard largely favorable testimony for a bill that would allow non-citizen legal residents to vote in local elections, but skeptics — including the head of the city’s election board — expressed concern over the logistics of expanding the franchise to Green Card-holders. Under the measure introduced by Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) earlier this year, D.C. would join Takoma Park, Maryland and a small number of other jurisdictions that allow legal permanent residents to vote in local elections. Grosso’s bill would only require that those residents live in the city for 30 days before being able to cast ballots.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — BILL WILSON – former Chief Economist of Ernst & Young and Heritage Senior Research Fellow on Free Markets in Asia

• China stock market surges in volatile session.
• NYSE reopened after trading stopped amid United Airlines, WSJ.com tech issues

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• Police investigating Ariana Grande’s doughnut-licking video. (Fox News) — California police said Wednesday they are investigating a video that appears to show pop superstar Ariana Grande licking doughnuts. Police in Lake Elsinore, where the donut shop is located, say they and Riverside County public health officials were investigating the leaked video, which appears to show the 22-year-old and a man with her “maliciously lick” the doughnuts on top of a counter. Mayra Solis, 22, a cashier at Wolfee Donuts who was on duty when Grande went into the store, said the singer didn’t purchase any of the doughnuts she appears to lick. “She was really rude,” Solis told The Associated Press. Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Vasquez told the Los Angeles Times, they don’t believe a crime was committed, so Grande may not be investigated.
• Tom Selleck accused of stealing water for California ranch. LOS ANGELES (AP) — A water district has sued Tom Selleck, claiming the star of the crime shows “Magnum, P.I.” and “Blue Bloods” stole truckloads of water from a public hydrant and took it to his ranch in drought-stricken California. The Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County claims a tanker truck filled up at a hydrant more than a dozen times and hauled water to a 60-acre ranch owned by Selleck in Westlake Village. The Los Angeles Times says Selleck grows avocados at the ranch. The district also says it spent nearly $22,000 to hire a private investigator to document the alleged thefts that date back two years.
• Ben Affleck Cheating: Actor Reportedly Admitted Affair To Jennifer Garner, Got Thrown Out Of The House. Ben Affleck reportedly admitted to cheating in the last year, prompting wife Jennifer Garner to throw him out and ultimately leading to the couple’s divorce. Affleck and Garner announced their split last week, saying they had come to the mutual decision to end their marriage. The announcement, which came one day after their 10-year anniversary, said the couple was focused on their kids and making the process as easy as possible. But behind the scenes, sources said the situation was far from amicable. Affleck reportedly cheated with an unidentified woman, and Jen’s trust was broken. The couple didn’t split right away after Affleck’s cheating was revealed, a source told Us Weekly. “She always fought against the urge to throw her hands up in the air and walk away,” says an insider.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW _ BRAD THOR – New York Times bestselling author of new book “Code of Conduct”

• ABOUT BOOK: #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor presents his greatest thriller ever—an action-packed literary tour de force! Hidden deep within one of the world’s most powerful organizations is a secret committee with a devastating agenda. Its members are afforded incredible protections—considered elites, untouchables.

TOMORROW: Jake Tapper and Bret Baier