AEI’s Michael Rubin, Heritage’s Hans Von Spakovsky and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Ice rink built to honor late daughter may be closed by county. (WUSA) — It’s got synthetic ice, benches and goals. Marc Kohn built the roughly $40,000 ice hockey rink in remembrance of his late daughter, Melanie, an avid hockey fan. She passed away from a respiratory disease earlier this year. The rink is now a community favorite. Montgomery County, however, might close down the rink. Diane Jones, the county’s director of permitting services, told Kohn that she is concerned about public health and safety and zoning issues. His property sits on an agricultural reserve. Mounting outrage from Poolesville neighbors after Montgomery county tries to de-ice a dad’s backyard ice skating rink he built in honor of his daughter who just passed away. Kohn told WUSA9 he bought his house in Poolesville a little more than two months ago so he could build the rink. He said he started working on the rink the day he moved in. On Friday, Marc Kohn hosted his own Winter Classic. The place was packed. He said he will contact county officials Monday to discuss the rink’s fate. It is clear the community wants it to stay.

Montgomery County wants to move a backyard rink but may get a legal fight instead. His backyard ice rink honors a stepdaughter’s memory. Now it may close. (Washington Post) — Montgomery County officials met Monday with the Poolesville man who built a backyard hockey rink in memory of his late stepdaughter, explaining why he was in violation of zoning laws and offering to partner with him to move the rink to a legal location. But Marc Kohn, who spent nearly $40,000 on the project, rejected the idea and, after the meeting, said he won’t stop having kids and adults over to skate. “Don’t tell me I need to move my rink in order to appease the county,” Kohn said. “I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing: If anyone calls me up and they want to come over and skate, they can.” Kohn opened the 2,100-square-foot synthetic ice rink in mid-December, naming it Mel’s Rink to honor his stepdaughter Melanie Osborne, a lifelong hockey fan who died in July at 35 of respiratory disease.

5am – D         President defends plans to tighten gun-control restrictions without going through Congress. Obama moves to require background checks for more gun sales. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama moved Monday to expand background checks to cover more firearms sold at gun shows, online and anywhere else, aiming to curb a scourge of gun violence despite unyielding opposition to new laws in Congress. Obama’s plan to broaden background checks forms the centerpiece of a broader package of gun control measures the president plans to take on his own in his final year in office. Although Obama can’t unilaterally change gun laws, the president is hoping that beefing up enforcement of existing laws can prevent at least some gun deaths in a country rife with them. “This is not going to solve every violent crime in this country,” Obama said. Still, he added, “It will potentially save lives and spare families the pain of these extraordinary losses.” Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on buyers, but many who sell guns at flea markets, on websites or in other informal settings don’t register as dealers. Gun control advocates say that loophole is exploited to skirt the background check requirement.

5am – E         Pete Hoesktra: NSA Spying on Congress Requires Suspending State of the Union Invite. (by Pete Hoekstra/Breitbart) — Elected officials and leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) must maintain the integrity of America’s vast intelligence enterprise as a lawful, neutral, independent and fair arbiter of facts. Recent news that the Obama White House obtained intelligence containing private conversations of members of Congress and American Jewish organizations from the National Security Agency (NSA) suggests the integrity of our intelligence agencies have been undermined. The heads of the 17 organizations in the IC oversee a massive foreign data collection network that produces sensitive information on adversaries and allies. It is an awesome capability for good, but it poses a threat to free society if exploited for political purposes. The prospect of the White House – or any political element – using one of these agencies to mine information on members of Congress and U.S. citizens is frightening and criminal. So it is of grave concern to learn that the administration allegedly permitted the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor American communications between the Israeli prime minister and U.S. Congressmen and members of Jewish organizations during the sensitive domestic political debate on the Iran nuclear agreement. Lawmakers must respond quickly. This is about the NSA potentially violating constitutionally protected civil liberties. The rules are clear. When the electronic communications of U.S. citizens are inadvertently swept up, which happens frequently, the NSA is required to immediately minimize them.

6am – A/B     With New Year over and the prospect of returning to work looming heavily over our heads, eyes are turning to the Christmas trees in the corner. Real tree recycling points are already welcoming their first festive offerings, and the tinsel knows its days are numbered. But when should you take your Christmas decorations down?

• Twelfth Night: Once a big celebration on January 5, this has been the traditional time for taking down Christmas decorations since Victorian times. Leaving them up after that date is thought to bring back luck – though some say you avoid suffering ill fortune if you then keep them up until Shrove Tuesday (or even until the following Christmas, according to some superstitions).
• Twelfth Day of Christmas: The Feast of Epiphany (January 6 – the day following Twelfth Night), on which date the three wise men are said to have arrived at the stable where Jesus was born. Many people have adopted January 6 as a good marker, and often people take January 6 to be Twelfth Night.
• February 2: This does seem like an excessively long period of time, but until the 19th Century, people would keep their traditional evergreen decorations up until Candlemas Day on February 2, 40 days after the birth of Jesus, which officially marked the end of the Christmas season. It’s worth remembering our ancestors didn’t put their decorations up until Christmas Eve, not just after Halloween as is often the case today.
• New Year’s Day: In an age where trees appear from the end of October, many people get fed up with Christmas clutter and can’t wait to sweep the house clear of them. New Year’s Day is traditionally a new beginning, so this is a good day if you’ve become fed up with festivities and want to begin the new year and stop living in Christmas 2015.

Md. State Parks program seeks old Christmas trees for bird enrichment. WASHINGTON — You might look at an old Christmas tree at the curbside and think “recycling.” The folks at Maryland State Parks’ Scales and Tales programs look at that same tree and think “furniture.” Ranger Sarah Milbourne, with the Department of Natural Resources, explains that recycled Christmas trees are used inside the aviaries at six state parks where the raptors in the Scales and Tails program are kept. Milbourne says the trees provide cover and enrichment for animals that came into the program because they were wounded, and can’t be returned to the wild. Milbourne says the trees give the birds “greenery, protection, and a sense of the wild.” Milbourne says the trees will be welcomed by the many raptors in the parks: two bald eagles; kestrels; and barred and barn owls. She says the tiny screech owls — they weigh less than 200 grams (about the same as a cup of sugar) — are especially fond of nestling into the trees. She says if you want to take part in donating your tree, just make sure that all the decorations — including the tinsel — have been removed. The closest park for many in the area may be Cunningham Falls, in Frederick County. The Department of Natural Resources has information about recycling Christmas trees with the Maryland Park Service.

6am – C         Mayor Bowser slams council on crime package. WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — D.C. finished 2015 reeling from a stunning 54 percent jump in homicides. The Mayor on Monday slammed the District Council, accusing council members of moving way too slowly to implement her crime-fighting package. Judiciary Committee Chair Kenyan McDuffie says he’s not going to be forced into passing some kind of kneejerk bill. He insists the council has been working really hard, and that he’ll move carefully-thought-out legislation before the end of January. But Mayor Bowser says if the council had moved more quickly on her package of crime-fighting bills, the city would have helped pay for the system. “The Council just hasn’t acted. We’re calling on the to take action on the public safety legislation,” Bowser said.

6am – D         WHO’S TOURING FOR HILLARY CLINTON: Bill Clinton makes his solo debut on behalf of his wife’s campaign in New Hampshire.

6am – E         Armed protesters refuse to leave federal building in Oregon.   (CNN) Two days after taking over a federal building, armed protesters in Oregon are refusing to budge until they get what they want. The problem is, they haven’t specified what it would take to get them to leave. What started Saturday as a rally supporting two local ranchers led to a broader anti-government protest and now the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building near Burns. “We will be here as long as it takes,” protest spokesman Ammon Bundy told CNN by phone from inside the refuge. “We have no intentions of using force upon anyone, (but) if force is used against us, we would defend ourselves.” Bundy, 40, is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who drew national attention in 2014 after staging a standoff with federal authorities. And like his father, Bundy said he is standing up to the federal government over land rights. “This is about taking the correct stand without harming anybody to restore the land and resources to the people so people across the country can begin thriving again,” he said. Bundy said his group is calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, and that the group’s purpose is to restore and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Cruz urges armed protesters in Oregon to ‘stand down.’ Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday slammed the protesters who have taken over a federal building at a wildlife refuge in rural Oregon, urging them to lay down their arms. “Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds,” Cruz told reporters at campaign event in Iowa, according to NBC News. “But we don’t have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence on others,” he said. “And so it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down peaceably, that there will not be a violent confrontation.” Cruz said he is praying for everyone involved in the dispute, particularly law enforcement officials who “are risking their lives.” The protesters, led by two sons of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, broke into the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday when it was closed and no employees were present, according to The Oregonian.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — MICHAEL RUBIN – Resident Scholar at American Enterprise Institute, former Pentagon official and author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes”

• WHAT MESSAGE US IS SENDING SAUDIS, IRAN: The White House appeals for restraint by both nations after mobs attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
• Saudi Arabia severs ties with Iran. On January 2, 2016 Saudi Arabia executed Shi’ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr for inciting anti-government protests among the Shi’ite population in predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia. The execution sparked a heated reaction in Iran, and amid escalating tensions between the two countries, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday after the regime allowed protesters to storm the Saudi embassy in Tehran. With Iran and Saudi Arabia already waging proxy wars in Syria and Yemen, what will this mean for US interests and the future of an already volatile region?
• Former DoD official Michael Rubin: “Make no mistake, Saudi Arabia should be condemned for the murder of Sheikh Nimr, but that is no excuse for the violation of the Saudi embassy. Those who set fire to the embassy should be imprisoned for arson and responsible for the damage they caused, as should the security forces that encouraged the assault if not participated in it. The simple fact is that until Iran is compelled to respect foreign embassies, then no responsible country should maintain an embassy on Iranian soil. Only when Tehran realizes that rogue behavior wins no advantage and brings only isolation, might it begin to act like a civilized government. Conversely, to take no international collective action against the repeated and systematic violation of embassies by Iran or any other state is a guarantee that other regimes and groups will begin to consider it open season on embassies. At stake is not simply the embassy of one odious regime in the capital of another, but the understanding of the sanctity of diplomacy and diplomats dating back two hundred years.”

7am – B         Tickets to the Redskins playoff game sold out quickly, but there’s still ways to go Sunday. Redskins general admission tickets sell out quickly. WASHINGTON — It took just 13 minutes for general admission tickets to the NFC Wild Card game at FedEx Field to sell out, the Redskins say. There will be a limited number of premium club seats available for the Redskins-Packers game at 4:40 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10. If you are interested in those tickets, call the Redskins Ticket Office at 301-276-6050. The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers 20-13 Sunday, determining that the Redskins will face the Packers. Resale tickets are still available through Ticketmaster and StubHub.

Rams, Chargers, Raiders file with NFL for relocation to Los Angeles. (ESPN) – ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Rams, San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders filed applications for relocation to Los Angeles on Monday night. As expected on the first day NFL rules would allow, the league confirmed that the paperwork was officially filed and received. According to the NFL’s statement on the filings, each proposal contained the “appropriate documentation in support of its application, as required by the NFL Policy and Procedures for Proposed Franchise Relocations” and is intended to be effective for the 2016 NFL season. The Chargers revealed their intentions first and went so far as to have owner Dean Spanos appear in a video on the team’s website to explain the decision for filing.

7am – C         History uncovered where new hotel will soon stand: 1700s ship, preserved in a watery grave, emerges as hotel goes up. (Washington Post/Patricia Sullivan) — A large, heavy ship, scuttled between 1775 and 1798, is being dug out of its damp grave at the site of a new hotel construction project in Old Town Alexandria. Archaeologists found the partial hull of a ship at 220 S. Union St., part of the city’s major redevelopment of the Potomac River waterfront. It’s on the same one-block site where workers two months ago discovered a 1755 foundation from a warehouse that is believed to have been the city’s first public building. “It’s very rare. This almost never happens,” said Dan Baicy, the hard-hatted field director for Thunderbird Archeology, the firm watching for historic evidence during construction. “In 15 years that I’ve done this work, I’ve never run into this kind of preservation in an urban environment where there’s so much disturbance.” On Monday, naval archaeologists joined the crew at the site and help dismantle the vessel, timber by timber, looking for artifacts and markings that could identify it and show where it sailed and what it carried.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – HANS VON SPAKOVSKY – a former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of book “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” – discussed President Obama’s executive actions on guns.

7am – E         Trump Ad Fact Checked for Border Footage, Campaign Says ‘No S***’ (NBC News) — LOWELL, Mass. — Donald Trump may have some explaining to do about footage used in his new campaign advertisement. Released Monday, the TV ad shows people rushing towards a border fence as the narrator says Trump “will stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.” But that footage is of a Spanish enclave in Morocco, Politifact has found. The footage actually shows Moroccans crossing the border into Melilla and was shown on Italian network RepubblicaTV in May 2014. The Trump campaign plans to air the ad in Iowa and New Hampshire, so far buying $750,000 in the Hawkeye State and $500,000 in the Granite State, according to NBC News. This is Trump’s first televised ad of the cycle, previously saying he didn’t need them because ads on top of all of the media attention would make people “OD on Trump.” However, with less than a month until the Iowa caucus, Trump has set a budget of $2 million per week to ensure victory in early states. Asked about the video, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told NBC News, “No s***, it’s not the Mexican border but that’s what our country is going to look like. This was 1,000 percent on purpose.” Lewandowski later emailed a statement that said: “The use of this footage was intentional and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border and the very real threat Americans face if we do not immediately build a wall and stop illegal immigration. The biased mainstream media doesn’t understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and their families do.”

8am – A/B/C Ice rink built to honor late daughter may be closed by county.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry KUDLOW Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm

• MARKETS: Stocks start 2016 with a big fat thud. The Dow declined as many as 467 points and briefly fell below the 17,000 level for the first time since October. However, it bounced off the lows and ended the day down 276 points. It was still the Dow’s worst opening day of the year since 2008. The S&P 500 lost 1.5% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.1%.”Volatility is likely to rip through financial markets in the first half of 2016,” noted Nigel Green, CEO and founder of the deVere Group, in an email. “Today’s turbulence is only the beginning.” The main culprit is nothing new, with China’s slowing growth, which walloped the global economy in 2015, also rearing its head on the first day of trading this year.
• SENATE RUN? Kudlow strongly hints at Senate run. Kudlow Plans Senate Bid Decision by February.
• 2016: Bill Clinton makes his debut on behalf of his wife’s campaign in New Hampshire. Does Larry think people will vote for Hillary because they like Bill Clinton? Now is time for the candidates to ramp up efforts in Iowa — does Larry have predictions?

 8am – E Entertainment News:
• Celine Dion owns Adele cover. (USA Today) – Just when we thought we were ready to say goodbye to Adele’s Hello, Dion reminded us why our hearts can’t quite go on. At her New Year’s Eve concert in Las Vegas, the Grammy Award-winning songstress covered the haunting single. “Tonight, if I may, I would like for Adele to be part of our New Year’s Eve,” Dion said before clarifying — “Don’t panic. She’s not in the building” — and launching into a show-stopping rendition.
• Meredith Veira’s Show Has Been Cancelled.
• Leonardo DiCaprio and Girlfriend Kelly Rohrbach Have Split. “They have been broken up for a few months now,” a source who knows them both tells PEOPLE. “They are very friendly and it’s super amicable.” Their hectic work schedules contributed to the breakup, says the source. “They are both so busy and he’s got a big movie coming out and she’s one of the biggest supermodels in the world.

TOMORROW: Poolesville ice rink owner Marc Kohn, KT McFarland and Pete Hoekstra