Nomiki Konst, Stuart Varney, Adam Eidinger & Jake Tapper joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C In Historic U.S. Ruling, Sikh Army Officer Can Keep Beard, Turban. The U.S. military has granted a Sikh-American officer a religious exemption allowing him to continue serving his country while maintaining his articles of faith. The landmark decision makes Captain Simratpal Singh, a decorated combat veteran, the first active duty Sikh soldier to receive approval to wear a beard and turban while actively serving in the U.S. Army. “Captain Singh again proves to our military that the religiously mandated turban and beard do not hinder the ability to successfully serve,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur. “This decision gives hope that our nation’s largest employer is making progress towards ending a policy of religious discrimination.” Captain Singh graduated from West Point with honors in 2010, but was then forced to make the untenable choice between his religion and his career. Following failed attempts to obtain an accommodation, he cut his hair and shaved his beard. After successfully completing Army Ranger School, a Bronze Star tour in Afghanistan, and receiving numerous other military accolades in various military positions, Captain Singh filed a religious accommodation request on October 21, 2015. Last Thursday’s legal victory means Captain Singh has finally realized his dream of becoming spiritually whole.

5am – D         RIP MERLE HAGGARD: Merle Haggard, country music legend, dies at 79. (CNN)Merle Haggard, the grizzled country music legend whose songs such as “Okie from Muskogee” and “Fightin’ Side of Me” made him a voice for the workingman and the outsider, has died. He was 79. Haggard died Wednesday, his birthday, of complications from pneumonia at his home in Northern California, his agent Lance Roberts told CNN. Haggard recorded more than three dozen No. 1 country hits in a musical career that spanned six decades, from the 1960s into the 2010s. He overcame an early life of petty crime and a prison term in San Quentin to develop a rugged, outlaw image that helped sell millions of records.

5am – E         Latest news on the Clinton v Sanders race:

• Sanders sweeps Wisconsin and is confident about NY primary
• Bernie Sanders Gets Slammed for ‘Disaster’ Interview With NY Daily News
• Clinton on Sanders: ‘I’m not even sure’ he’s a Democrat

6am – A/B/C Noisy planes over Fairfax Co. prompt request for changes. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON — “Unrelenting” noise from jets taking off and landing at Reagan National Airport are prompting a new request from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for changes to flight paths at the airport. The board agreed Tuesday to send a letter to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and Federal Aviation Administration asking that flight patterns change back to older paths that saw planes rise higher and move farther south before turning off the airspace above the Potomac River. Supervisor Dan Storck represents the Mt. Vernon District, just south of Reagan National. “The noise is deafening and unrelenting,” he says. “This is not a new issue … it’s one that has resurfaced it’s head,” he adds. He largely blames the FAA’s troubled “NextGen” air traffic control system that was rolled out in the D.C. area in late 2014. The system is designed to improve efficiency using a combination of GPS and other features beyond radar to plot more direct flight paths.

6am – D         Parents recount their parenting fails after comedian Jason Manford shares STD blooper. Funnyman Jason recounted how he was asked by his child ‘what STD means.’  Parents recount their parenting fails after comedian Jason Manford shares STD blooper. A hilarious mix up between Jason Manford and his daughter has prompted dozen of parents to reveal their most embarrassing child moments. The Salford-born comedian shared the awkward conversation between himself and his six-year-old on Facebook. Funnyman Jason recounted how he was asked by his child “What STD means” and, as most parents would, the dad-of-five found himself lost for words.

“Me, calming down “why do you ask anyway?”

“Daughter “it just says it up there, ‘coffee: Large or std.”

“Moral of the story, always ask “where they’ve seen it first!”

6am – E         Property Tax News in MD and VA:

• Leggett Moves to Reduce Proposed Property Tax Increase. Announcement comes after Gov. Larry Hogan says he’ll allow longer repayment period for Wynne case obligations. County Executive Ike Leggett on Wednesday announced he has cut his proposed property tax increase nearly in half after the approval of a state bill to allow the county a longer repayment period for income tax obligations it owes thanks to last year’s Wynne Supreme Court case decision. Leggett said the move was a possibility when he first announced his proposed 8.6 percent property tax increase March 15 for the fiscal year that will begin July 1 and run until June 30, 2017. But at the time, the outcome of the state bill remained unresolved. Upon getting word that Gov. Larry Hogan won’t veto the law, Leggett announced Wednesday his amended property tax increase will amount to an extra 2.1 cents per $100 of assessed property value, as opposed to the extra 3.94 cents per $100 of assessed property value he originally proposed.
• Fairfax Education Association: raise our property taxes so we can “rebuild” Fairfax. Fairfax Co. begins budget hearings. Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors began public hearings on the Fiscal Year 2017 budget Tuesday, April 5. The proposed county budget allocation to county schools is about $14 million less than requested by the Fairfax County School Board. County schools spokesman John Torre tells WTOP that the increase in state aid and sales tax, along with the current proposed 3 percent transfer increase from the county, “still leaves us with about a $50 million shortfall.” That leaves some advocates calling for more money for schools. “Raise our property taxes this year and get the meals tax on the ballot to help us rebuild Fairfax County to what it should be and is expected to be,” said Fairfax Education Association President Kimberly Adams of Springfield. “It is important to me that we have high-quality public services,” Adams said. Danielle Wilkerson, who identifies herself as a single 35-year-old with no children in the schools, is among the residents asking for a tax increase. “I ask you, please to raise our taxes by the 4 cents that is still possible so that I can live in the kind of community that I thought this was when I moved here,” Wilkerson said while referencing a proposal to raise real estate tax rates.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — NOMIKI “Nomi” KONST – a Bernie Sanders supporter, contributor for The Hill and frequent commentator on Fox News and CNN

• Latest news on the Clinton v Sanders race:
• Sanders sweeps Wisconsin and is confident about NY primary
• Bernie Sanders Gets Slammed for ‘Disaster’ Interview With NY Daily News
• Clinton on Sanders: ‘I’m not even sure’ he’s a Democrat
• Sanders campaign planning for contested convention

7am – B         9-year-old reporter breaks crime news, posts videos, fires back at critics. (The Washington Post) – Reporter Hilde Kate Lysiak got the tip early Saturday afternoon that there was heavy police activity on Ninth Street. She hustled over with her pen and camera, as any good reporter would, and soon she posted something short online, beating all her competitors. Then, working the neighbors and the cops, she nailed down her scoop with a full-length story and this headline: “EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET!” The online story not only beat the local daily paper, but she also included a short video from the crime scene, assuring viewers that “I’m working hard on this investigation.” Then Monday came and Hilde had to go back to third grade. She is 9. As the editor and publisher of the Orange Street News, in her hometown of Selinsgrove, Pa., about 50 miles north of Harrisburg, Lysiak is a dedicated multi-media journalist who loves going after crime stories. Her father is an author and former New York Daily News reporter who took Hilde to his newsroom and to stories he covered around New York and hooked her on the rush of chasing news. “I just like letting people know all the information,” Hilde said Monday.

7am – C         Transgender News:

• Harvard Professor Calls For National LGBT Rainbow ‘Pee-In.’ A researcher and a professor from Harvard University called for a national “pee-in” movement by LGBT activists to protest the recent LGBT bills in North Carolina and Mississippi. The article, published in a pro-LGBT magazine Wednesday, is written by Harvard Professor of law Bruce Hay and Mischa Haider, a researcher who describes herself as a “trans activist.” The pair call on transgender people to proudly go into the restroom opposite their anatomical gender at birth, regardless if they look like their new gender, all to make a statement. “Additionally, men who make murderous threats against trans individuals for entering bathrooms with their ‘wives and daughters’ need to be held accountable,” the article reads.
• Transgender banker, 55, has her ears and nose REMOVED to transform into a ‘dragon lady.’ This is Happening: Transgender Woman Now Transitioning into a Dragon. A male-to-female transgender woman who prefers the pronoun “it” says it believes it was born not only the wrong sex, but also the wrong species, and has been undergoing human-to-dragon transition procedures to fix the problem.  The 55-year-old, who was born “Richard Hernandez” but now goes by “Eva Tiamat Baphomet Medusa,” has already had a whole slew of transformative work done: Tooth extraction, eye coloring, horn implants, ear removal (!), nose modification and a procedure to give it a forked tongue. It’s also gotten tattoos and scarification on its face and chest to make it look like it has scales instead of human skin. According to an article in the Daily Mail, “Eva Tiamat Baphomet Medusa” — or “Tiamat” for short — refers to itself as a “mythical beast.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Anchor of Varney and Company, Fox Business Network

• Allergan CEO: Merger with Pfizer was targeted by government.  Allergan CEO Brent Saunders told CNBC on Wednesday the U.S. government had targeted his company’s failed $160 billion deal with Pfizer. “It really looked like they did a very fine job of constructing a rule here — a temporary rule — to stop this deal, and obviously it was successful,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
• In wake of Panama Papers, Obama calls on Congress to fix tax ‘inversions’
• 43% of people with student loans are not paying.

7am – E         Ray Lewis Blasts Black Lives Matter For Ignoring Black-on-Black Crime: Do Black Lives Really Matter? Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis posted a video on his Facebook page over the weekend where he ripped the Black Lives Matter movement for ignoring the problem of “black men killing black men.” In his heartfelt video commentary Lewis called out the movement for making black people feel victimized while “every day we have black-on-black crime killing each other.” Lewis said there aren’t any riots over this problem. “Why do we always find ourselves the victims, and now we have the separation once again that we’re being victimized because of one bad white cop, two bad white cops, three bad white cops, killing a young black brother. But every day we have black-on-black crime, killing each other?” Lewis asked in the video. “The March murder rate rose by 29 percent, but we’re not rioting in the streets over black on black killing each other,” an aggravated Lewis said. Lewis asked the Black Lives Matter movement if black lives do indeed matter. “I’m trying to figure out if black lives really matter,” Lewis questioned. “In Chicago alone the murder rate has soared 72 percent in 2016 — 88 percent in the first three months of 2016 compared to the last year.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ADAM EIDINGER — Founder of DCMJ (formerly known as the DC Cannabis Campaign) and is the political activist, known for his role in spearheading Initiative 71, which legalized cannabis in the District of Columbia in 2015

• BACKGROUND:  In July 2013 DCMJ transitioned to the DC Cannabis Campaign in order to pass Ballot Initiative 71 and in the Spring of 2015, converted back to DCMJ, a community group fighting for equal rights for DC cannabis users, growers, and their families.
• DC Council votes to ban pot smoking in private clubs
• Why marijuana advocates were lighting up at the White House. Marijuana legalization activists smoked in front of the White House Saturday, in what they called a ‘desperate’ attempt to get the President’s attention.

8am – B         RIP MERLE HAGGARD: Merle Haggard, country music legend, dies at 79. (CNN)Merle Haggard, the grizzled country music legend whose songs such as “Okie from Muskogee” and “Fightin’ Side of Me” made him a voice for the workingman and the outsider, has died. He was 79. Haggard died Wednesday, his birthday, of complications from pneumonia at his home in Northern California, his agent Lance Roberts told CNN. Haggard recorded more than three dozen No. 1 country hits in a musical career that spanned six decades, from the 1960s into the 2010s. He overcame an early life of petty crime and a prison term in San Quentin to develop a rugged, outlaw image that helped sell millions of records.

8am – C         Maryland approves Purple Line contract. WASHINGTON – The Maryland Board of Public Works has approved a contract with a team of private companies to build and operate the 16-mile Purple Line, which officials say will make it easier for commuters to take public transit and will bring business development to Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. Purple Line Transit Partners, led by Fluor Enterprises, was selected as the contractor. Its proposal estimated that it would cost of $2.61 billion over the course of the 36-year contract to build and operate the light rail line that will run from Bethesda to New Carrollton. The three-member Board of Public Works includes Gov. Larry Hogan, Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot. They voted 3-0 in favor of the contract, which allows the long-discussed transit project to become a reality.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of The Lead and State of the Union on CNN

• Latest news on the Clinton v Sanders race:
• Sanders sweeps Wisconsin and is confident about NY primary
• Bernie Sanders Gets Slammed for ‘Disaster’ Interview With NY Daily News.
• Clinton on Sanders: ‘I’m not even sure’ he’s a Democrat
• Sanders campaign planning for contested convention
• Trump leads big in New York as he prepares for convention fight

8am – E         Nats Home Opener:

• The Nationals go up against the Marlins in their home opener Thursday with plenty in store for fans as they arrive.
• Nats to Honor Police, Firefighters At Home Opener. WASHINGTON – (WMAL) The Washington Nationals open their home slate on Thursday against the Miami Marlins, and before the game the team will be honoring first responders who were killed and injured in the line of duty over the past year and a half. “Someone with the Nats organization reached out to the department, and we were very honored,” Prince William County Police spokesman Jonathan Perok told WMAL. “To have our home team reach out to us, it means a lot.” The Nats will have a moment of silence to honor the police and firefighters killed on duty since January 1, 2015. That list includes Prince William County Officer Ashley Guindon, Prince George’s County Officers Jacai Colson and Brennan Rabain, Montgomery County Officer Noah Leotta, and D.C. Firefighter Kevin McRae.
• New food hits menu at Nationals Park. WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — Gourmet hot dogs, savory snacks, vegetarian bites and even something sweet — Nationals Park featured its newest menu items in an event Tuesday. Opening Day is only a week away, but baseball fans will have something to look forward to other than the game — some new eats at the park. The menu items include St. Louis BBQ ribs, Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, tater tots, waffle fries and zesty cole slaw. There’s also gyros, lamb sliders and even babka gelato sandwiches. But if you’re vegetarian, there’s options for you too — a vegetarian chicken salad sandwich, a buffalo chicken wrap and beef tacos. The home opener will air April 7 on WUSA9.
• Nationals outfielder Matt den Dekker comfortable hitting in a pinch. Matt den Dekker has had 29 at-bats as a pinch hitter, enough for the Washington Nationals’ outfielder to know what it takes to get ready at a moment’s notice. Those moments are usually in the late innings of a game and often when the pitcher is due up in the batting order. On Wednesday, he faced a different type of turnaround. Center fielder Ben Revere, who was injured in the season opener on Monday, landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right oblique. To fill his spot on the roster, the Nationals recalled den Dekker, who was sent to Triple-A Syracuse at the end of spring training, hours before the Nationals’ game against the Atlanta Braves. He got on an airplane at 5:30 p.m., arrived at Turner Field in the fifth inning and delivered a pinch-hit double in the top of the seventh to give the Nationals a 3-1 lead and a win against the Braves. “I mean, I’ve been through it the last three years. When I was with the Mets, we were in Vegas so that made it even tougher with red-eye flights and stuff,” den Dekker said. “Luckily for us, we’re on the east coast, a two-hour flight, you get in and it’s not as bad as coming across the country. You try to relax on the flight, get in and go to work. It was great. My bags were there right when I got to to baggage claim. Had a car waiting. It all went smooth by the time I got there in the fifth inning.” Despite the quick turnaround, den Dekker relied on his same approach, which allowed him to drive Bud Norris’ fastball deep into the right-field gap.