Trevor Matich, Cathy Lanier, Jay Morgan and guest host Kerry Picket joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, January 1, 2016

Hosts: Larry O’Connor and guest host Kerry Picket

6am – A/B/C    Where gun laws stand in 2016

• Obama to announce new executive action on guns. CNN—President Barack Obama is expected to announce in the coming days a new executive action with the goal of expanding background checks on gun sales, people familiar with White House planning said. Described as “imminent,” the set of executive actions would fulfill a promise by the President to take further unilateral steps the White House says could help curb gun deaths. Plans for the action are not yet complete, and those familiar with the process warn that unforeseen circumstances could delay an announcement. But gun control advocates are expecting the new actions to be revealed next week, ahead of Obama’s annual State of the Union address, set for January 12.
• Gun-Friendly Texas Is Getting Even Friendlier. NYTimes – Texas is so gun-friendly that it is easier to get into the Capitol in Austin with a firearm than without one — licensed, gun-carrying lawmakers and members of the public have their own no-wait security lane, and the unarmed masses have to stand in line and slog through the metal detectors. But on Friday, gun rights throughout the state expanded still more, as a new law took effect that allows certain Texans to wear their handguns in holsters on their hips — or in shoulder holsters, Dirty Harry-style — openly displaying the fact that they are armed as they work, shop, dine and go about their day.

6am – D           INTERVIEW – CATHY LANIER – DC Police Chief

• New laws on police body cameras going into effect

6am –E            FOX, CNN New Year’s Eve Countdowns 

• Fox News Closes Out 2015 with Trump Interview and Clock Countdown Despite Tech Glitches. Mediaite — Trump and his family counted down the final seconds of 2015 on Fox News live from Palm Beach, Florida. The GOP frontrunner faced several questions from event hosts Guilfoyle and Bolling, but some of the technical elements of the interview weren’t so smooth. Before it became clear that Bolling’s microphone was not being hear by Trump, the back-and-forth was pregnant with a several longer-than-comfortable airtime pauses. At one point Trump simply, and confusedly, deadpanned, “I really can not understand you. I can not hear you.”

• Kathy Griffin Keeps Anderson Cooper Blushing Until 2016. OUT – Kathy Griffin can’t help but embarrass Anderson Cooper on live television. The dynamic duo is hosting CNN’s coverage of New Years Eve. According to Griffin, Cooper is turning into Rachel Maddow. He even refers to his glasses as Rachel Maddow glasses. Griffin took a poll of who was a better gay person between Cooper or Maddow. Griffin had to side with Maddow. 

7am – A           INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – Redskins Analyst 

• Redskins face the Cowboys on Sunday

7am – B           Star Wars Updates 

• George Lucas apologizes for ‘white slaver’ comments on selling ‘Star Wars’. LATimes – George Lucas may have mixed feelings about parting ways with the galaxy he built. In an interview on “Charlie Rose” the “Star Wars” creator called the past films he directed his “kids” and likened the split from the franchise to that of a breakup with a romantic partner. And then Lucas implied that he had sold those kids to “white slavers.” Lucas has since responded with an apology and a statement released to the media (via Deadline): “I want to clarify my interview on the ‘Charlie Rose Show.’ It was for the Kennedy Center Honors and conducted prior to the premiere of the film. I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy and for that I apologize.”
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 11 things they cut from the film. Telegraph — You might be frustrated to learn that directorJJ Abrams’s original cut of the two hour, 14-minute-long film was a slightly more impressive two hours and 40 minutes; over 15 minutes of footage was mercilessly chopped. But what exactly happened in the missing scenes? Some of the cut footage (which may well turn up on a DVD deleted scenes reel in the future, as Abrams has stated he definitely won’t be doing a director’s cut) has already been glimpsed in the trailers, while other parts are described in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens book adaptation, which is currently available digitally.

7am – C           Wayne Rogers, Trapper John on ‘M*A*S*H*,’ dies at 82

• Fox – Wayne Rogers, whose Trapper John McIntyre alongside Alan Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce brought mischief, martinis and meatball surgery to the masses in the 1970s every week on “M.A.S.H.,” has died. The actor was surrounded by family when he died Thursday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia at age 82, his publicist and longtime friend Rona Menashe told The Associated Press.

7am – D            How 2015 became the year of the hoverboard                    

• Vox –But it’s also possible that 2015 was simply fated to be the Year of the Hoverboard. Hoverboards were making news this year before self-balancing scooters were, inspired by all of us reaching the year Marty McFly traveled to in Back to the Future Part II and finding it depressingly devoid of actual hoverboards. This year saw attempts at manufacturing real hoverboards that actually hover — Lexus made one that only works in a special park in Spain; a project called the Hendo Hoverboard raised half a million dollars on Kickstarter. The first recorded use of “hoverboard” to refer to the hands-free scooters seems to come from the Luxury Technology Show, where visitors reference Back to the Future but don’t directly call them hoverboards.

7am – E            New Year’s Eve was mostly peaceful around the world

•  Dubai seeks cause of massive hotel fire at New Year. BBC – The fire broke out at about 21:30 local time (17:30 GMT) and appeared to engulf much of the Address Downtown, a five-star hotel and apartment complex, within 10 minutes. our teams of firefighters battled the blaze for hours, officials said. The Dubai government tweeted that 14 people had suffered minor injuries, one moderate injuries and there was one “heart attack case” due to “overcrowding and smoke”. Irish singer Anita Williams, who was performing at the hotel, told the BBC that people left in a “stampede”. “We left everything. There was debris falling down. It [the fire] just shot up through the entire hotel. “Everybody was screaming, everybody was running… I thought: ‘This is a film’.” 

•  Munich stations evacuated over ‘IS attack threat.’ BBC – Police in Munich evacuated two major railway stations after an intelligence agency warned Germany of an imminent attack, officials said. Authorities received information that suicide bombers from so-called Islamic State (IS) could target the central station or Pasing station, Bavaria’s interior minister said. Bot stations have since reopened, police tweeted. Cities across Europe have been on alert for a possible New Year’s Eve attack. The alert in Munich came just hours before midnight and police warned people to stay away from crowds. “I am happy that nothing has so far happened and I hope it stays that way,” said interior minister Joachim Herrmann. Between five and seven militants were thought to be planning an attack, Munich’s police head Hubertus Andra said. 

8am – A           INTERVIEW – JAY MORGAN – Founder and Owner of Born to Be Fit

• Is one of your New Years Resolutions to get fit? Jay Morgan says you need to bring that same determination you have to get to the gym into the kitchen in order to eat right as well.

8am – B/C/DE      Presidential candidates haven’t given much on their New Year’s Resolutions.

• WMAL takes your calls: What should presidential candidates’ resolutions be?