Charlie Hurt, Rep Jim Jordan, Scott Allen, allergy expert Susan Kosisky and Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, May 5, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Is This Health Care Vote A Win For The GOP Or Will It Come Back to Haunt Them?

• Rep. Schiff: When CBO score likely shows millions will lose their health care coverage, image of Republicans celebrating will HAUNT them.
• Trump, GOP Leaders Take Victory Lap After House Passes ‘Trumpcare.’ President Donald Trump celebrated on Thursday taking the first step toward repealing and replacing Obamacare. Trump called the measure “incredibly well crafted” and praised House Republicans for passing a “great plan” that will end the “suffering” and “ravages” of Obamacare and credited the legislation for uniting the GOP. “They’re not even doing it for the party,” Trump said as he stood flanked by Republican House leaders and rank-and-file members in the Rose Garden at the White House. “They’re doing it for this country because we suffered with Obamacare.” Just before the president spoke, House Speaker Paul Ryan was seen in the Oval with Trump smiling and shaking hands.
• House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act. WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday narrowly approved legislation to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, as Republicans recovered from their earlier failures and moved a step closer to delivering on their promise to reshape American health care without mandated insurance coverage. The vote, 217 to 213, held on President Trump’s 105th day in office, is a significant step on what could be a long legislative road. Twenty Republicans bolted from their leadership to vote no. But the win keeps alive the party’s dream of unwinding President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. The House measure faces profound uncertainty in the Senate, where a handful of Republican senators immediately rejected it, signaling that they would start work on a new version of the bill virtually from scratch.
• While House passes GOP health-care bill, Senate prepares to do its own thing. A small group of GOP senators met Thursday morning in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to begin outlining their health-care priorities, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), McConnell’s top deputy. “It was designed by the leader to be a smaller group of people that represent the different perspectives and points of view in our conference,” “If that group can get to ‘Yes,’ then [we will] take it to the rest of the conference,” Cornyn commented. Cornyn would not commit to a timeline for a Senate vote, simply saying: “When we get 51 senators, we’ll vote.” Republicans hold a 52-to-48 advantage over Democrats in the upper chamber, leaving GOP leaders with a narrower margin for error than in the House, where infighting among Republican lawmakers nearly derailed the push on multiple occasions.
• One of Maryland’s biggest Obamacare insurers wants to hike rates 50 percent next year. The head of the largest insurer in the Mid-Atlantic region warned Thursday that the Affordable Care Act marketplaces were in the early stages of a death spiral, a statement that came as the company announced its request for massive, double-digit premium increases for next year. Projecting that by year’s end the company will have lost a total of $600 million since it started selling plans in the marketplaces four years ago, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield is requesting a greater than 50 percent rate increase in Maryland, a 35 percent increase in northern Virginia and a 29 percent increase in D.C.

5am – D POLITICS IN THE WORK PLACE — Can you talk about politics with your co-workers? A new post-election survey indicates that the political climate for workers has only gotten worse. “We did the survey last fall in the lead-up to the election and found, indeed, all these discussions swirling around at work were affecting people on the job. So, on the heels of the election, we were curious about how that might have changed,” Dr. David Ballard, director of the American Psychological Association’s Center for Organizational Excellence, told CBS News. The online survey of 1,311 full- and part-time workers, conducted between February and March of 2017 by Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association, found more than half of workers — 54 percent — have discussed politics on the job since the election. And those conversations appear to be taking a toll. Twenty-six percent of workers reported feeling tense or stressed in the latest survey, compared to 17 percent before the election. Twenty-one percent felt cynical and negative during the workday, compared with 15 percent pre-election.

5am – E SPORTS NEWS:

• Wizards beat Celtics 116-89 in technical foul-filled Game 3. (AP) — John Wall scored 24 points, Isaiah Thomas was held to 13 and the Washington Wizards jumped out to a hot start and rode it to a 116-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in a technical foul-filled Game 3 on Thursday night to cut their series deficit to 2-1. The Wizards used a 22-0 first-quarter run to take a 34-12 lead as Thomas and the Celtics kept missing shots and turning the ball over. The game was already a blowout in the second when Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. was ejected for charging and knocking over Kelly Olynyk after the Boston big man was called for an illegal screen. There were eight technical fouls and three ejections total.
• CAPITALS have make or break game TOMORROW (SATURDAY) — Game 5 – tomorrow vs Penguins 7:15 PM
• Nationals beat Diamondbacks 4-2. Eight years later, Max Scherzer still finds a little extra motivation when he faces his first major league team. Scherzer struck out a season-high 11 to bounce back from his worst outing this season, and Washington defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 on Thursday after losing Bryce Harper to a groin injury.

6am – A SCHOOL NEWS:

• School put on LOCK DOWN after a kid dressed as Darth Vader for Star Wars day sparks shooter fears. School Evacuated after Kid Wears Darth Vader Costume to Class. (Daily Mail) – Millions of people across the globe are celebrating Star Wars day today, also known as May the Fourth. But one teen got more than he bargained for when he wore his Darth Vader costume to his school, Ashwaubenon High, near Green Bay, in Wisconsin. Within minutes of the boy, who has not been named, entering his school, a dozen police arrived responding to calls of a potential shooter and Ashwaubenon High was placed on lockdown. Police explained that a passerby had spotted the kid walking to school wearing the Darth Vader mask, and mistook his black, plastic costume for a ‘ballistic-type vest’ and called 911. The school was put on lockdown, and officers evacuated the building and sent in teams to sweep the area before they realized the mistake.
• Noose found at U.Md. frat house. WASHINGTON — A fourth noose has been found on a D.C.-area college campus within the past week. The noose was discovered last Thursday inside the University of Maryland Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house in College Park, Maryland. The school’s newspaper, The Diamondback, reports that University Police are investigating this as a hate bias incident. The school’s fraternity and sorority life director told organization presidents Wednesday that the noose was found hanging in the kitchen of the Phi Kappa Tau house, noting that it impacted the catering and housekeeping staffs as well as the members of the fraternity. University President Wallace Loh condemned the act, calling it “despicable.” “All of us — students, faculty, staff, alumni — stand united in our commitment to core values of human dignity, diversity, inclusiveness, and intellectual freedom,” Loh said in a statement. “We stand against such craven expressions of bigotry.”
• An Arlington middle school’s go-kart program has kids actually looking forward to learning more after school. (NBC Washington) — A group of students at one middle school in Arlington, Virginia, actually love staying after class. The students at Gunston Middle School get to design, build and race their own go-karts. The students learn much more than how to use power tools.
• ICE Files Detainer Against El Salvadorian Student Who Brought Stolen AR-15 To Maryland High School. (Daily Caller) — Nation and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has filed an immigration detainer against high school junior Mario G. Alvarado after he brought a stolen AR-15 to his Maryland high school. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an immigration detainer against Mario G. Alvarado, an 18-year-old citizen of El Salvador, on May 2, 2017, with the Montgomery County Detention Center after he was arrested on criminal charges,” read an ICE statement posted by ABC7 News. Montgomery County police in Maryland arrested 18-year-old Albert Einstein High School student Alvarado on Monday after he allegedly was caught driving a stolen car, which had a stolen AR-15 in the trunk. The rifle itself had been lifted from a police cruiser on Saturday. “ICE places detainers on individuals who have been arrested on local criminal charges and who are suspected of being deportable, so that ICE can take custody of those individuals when they are released from local custody,” the statement continued. After a school resource officer spotted the strange Mazda 3 sitting in the school parking lot, the officer followed the car and attempted to pull it over as part of a traffic stop. Alvarado stopped the car and fled on foot. He then returned shortly after to the scene, at which point police officers arrested him. Alvarado has been charged with possessing a deadly weapon on school property, possession of an assault weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle, among other charges.

6am – B Critter News:

• Man Kills Neighbor ‘Who Taught Parrot to Insult Him’…Woman killed by neighbor after allegedly training pet parrot to insult him. (Fox News) — A man has been accused of murdering his next-door neighbor after claiming she trained her parrot to insult him. Ignazio Frailis is said to have waited for Maria Bonaria Contu as she went for a walk with pals. Frailis, 46, then allegedly stabbed the 60-year-old married mother of two 11 times and wounded a friend who tried to protect her. The alleged incident unfolded on the Italian island of Sardinia in the city of Cagliari. Eugenio Fatone, the arresting officer, told reporters Frailis was “very cold, very calm and full of rage”. Investigators say he was driven to kill Mrs Contu by a parrot which she trained to hurl insults whenever he passed the bird, L’Unione Sarda reports. According to investigators, unemployed Frailis spent most of his time playing violent video games in his home where he could hear the bird’s taunts. Magistrate Paolo De Angelis said: “Listening to the parrot all day, it became an obsession for him. “I don’t exclude mental problems. Even the worst parrot in the world doesn’t justify this.”
• Komodo dragon attacks tourist… MAULED BY A DRAGON Tourist pictured covered in blood after KOMODO DRAGON attack leaves him with ‘severe’ injuries to his legs. (The Sun) — Huge 8ft reptile pounces on him and clamps razor sharp jaws into limbs. A TOURIST who refused to pay for a tour guide was mauled by a fearsome Komodo dragon. Lon Lee Alle, 50, from Singapore, ventured alone into a secluded area to watch the wild beasts gorging on goats and pigs in West Manggarai, Indonesia. He is said to have ignored warnings not to get too close to the prehistoric looking creatures and crept up on one to take pictures. But one of the Komodo dragons – believed to have been about 8ft long – clearly thought it was dinner time and pounced. Shocked onlookers dragged him to safety yesterday at about 8am local time. Horrific pictures taken by a tour guide show blood pouring from the wound on Lon’s leg as he is wheeled away to receive stitches at the Komodo National Park.
• United Airlines pays owner hefty price for death of her giant bunny. United Airlines agreed to pay a five-figure compensation to rabbit breeder Annette Edwards after her giant rabbit Simon died on a flight from London to Chicago. Simon, a three-foot-long giant black bunny, was expected to outgrow his father to eventually become the biggest rabbit in the world when he reportedly froze to death during a United Airlines flight. An airport worker said Simon was mistakenly placed in a freezing holding cell for up to 16 hours, the Daily Mail reported. The rabbit was on his way to a new owner in Iowa, who wanted to show him off at the Iowa State Fair.
• Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s FINAL SHOW will be streamed on Facebook Live. The last Ringling Bros. circus will be streamed on Facebook Live. If you’ve never seen “the greatest show on earth,” here’s your chance. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will close this month after more than 100 years in operation, but the curious who haven’t taken in the so-called “greatest show on earth” will get one more chance — regardless of whether they buy a ticket. Ringing Bros. announced today that the final performance will be broadcast over Facebook Live, a decidedly modern move for such a traditional show. The show will also be streamed from the Ringling Bros. homepage, as well. The performance takes place on Sunday, May 21st at 7PM ET and will be broadcast from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum just outside of New York City. RIngling Bros. announced its touring circus would come to an end this past January due to declining ticket sales and rising production costs.

6am – C WEATHER NEWS:

• Heavy Rain Drenches DC Area Friday Morning. (NBC Washington) – Expect rain and cooler temperatures Friday and Saturday. Heavy rain is drenching the D.C. area Friday morning, and it’s expected to last through much of the day. The heaviest showers are expected to last until about noon. Flood watches have been issued for parts of northwestern Virginia, and minor flooding has been reported in some areas. Remember to NEVER drive over a water-covered road. Turn around, don’t drown! Some areas may see rain totals of as much as 1 inch. Scattered thunderstorms will return in the afternoon. There is a marginal risk for severe storms, with damaging wind gusts and hail being the biggest threats. The pollen count will be very low Friday, giving allergy sufferers some temporary relief. Friday’s pollen count will be the lowest we have seen lately.
• For 3rd straight summer, chiller system that cools Metro’s Dupont Circle, Farragut North stations won’t be working. WASHINGTON — For the third straight summer, the chiller system that is supposed to cool Metro’s Dupont Circle and Farragut North stations will not be working, WTOP has learned. Instead, Metro, the D.C. government and the Business Improvement District for the area are in the process of renting equipment “as early as June” that could work to cool off the air in both stations. If the connections hold up, that addition this summer would provide the first relief for riders on the Dupont Circle and Farragut North platforms since the summer of 2015. The single system that cools both stations has been crippled by apparent leaks in the lines used to circulate the chilled water. The lines that are broken connect a pumping plant beneath the median of Connecticut Avenue to a cooling tower on the roof of a building at Connecticut Avenue and L Street Northwest.
• Big chill to invade eastern U.S. this weekend, and it may get stuck.

6am – D The Senate must now pass its own bill to repeal and replace Obama’s health care law.

6am – E Study: Kids’ screen time linked to speech delay. (US News) — You may want to be careful about how much time your child spends playing with technology. Children who used devices like smartphones and tablets for longer periods of time faced a higher risk of speech delay, according to a new study. “It’s the first time that we’ve sort of shone a light on this potential issue, but I think the results need to be tempered (because) it’s really a first look,” Dr. Catherine Birken, a senior investigator on the study and a pediatrician and scientist at the Toronto-based Hospital for Sick Children told CNN. The study, which included approximately 900 children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years, will be presented Saturday in San Francisco at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. For the study, parents shared with researchers how many minutes their 18-month-old children were using screens each day, while researchers in turn analyzed their language development. One-fifth of these children used screens an average of 28 minutes per day, and for each 30-minute screen time increase, there was a 49 percent higher risk of “expressive speech delay,” meaning the use of both sounds and words.

6am – F Virginia Governor’s Race:

• Gillespie Launches First Ad In Virginia Governor’s Race. Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie launched his first ad of the Virginia 2017 race Thursday. The ad will air in all Virginia markets and aims to inform voters about Gillespie’s proposed tax plan. “Ed’s ‘Cutting Taxes for ALL Virginians’ Plan is the centerpiece of a substantive policy agenda that will spark natural, organic growth for our economy and will mean nearly $1,300 more in disposable income for the average family of four,” Campaign Manager Chris Leavitt wrote in a press release. “The ad demonstrates Ed’s commitment to putting forward bold policy proposals that will grow our economy and help create new, good paying jobs all across Virginia.” The Gillespie campaign invested just under $21,000 through ad-buying firm Strategic Media Services in the statewide campaign, according to the Federal Communications Commission website.
• Virginia governor candidate crushes ambulance in dramatic anti-ObamaCare repeal ad. (The Hill) — A Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia on Thursday displays an ambulance being crushed in a new campaign ad. Standing in front of the ambulance as it’s crushed, former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) compares the vehicle’s destruction to Republicans’ attacks on ObamaCare. “Republican leaders are trying to do this to affordable healthcare,” he says as the ambulance is gradually smashed behind him.“I’m Tom Perriello, and in Congress, I voted for ObamaCare because it was wrong that a million Virginians weren’t covered while insurance companies had all the power.” Perriello, who served in the House from 2008 to 2010, urges voters to help him thwart President Trump.

7am – A FRENCH ELECTION ON SUNDAY:

• Emmanuel Macron is 39 and his wife is 64. French women say it’s about time. (Washington Post) — PARIS — Emmanuel Macron, the front-runner in Sunday’s French presidential election, shares something with President Trump: a 24-year age gap with his wife. The difference is that Macron’s wife is the older one. That cliche-busting fact — a candidate young enough to be his wife’s son, rather than old enough to be her father — is a little social “revenge” that delights many French women, including Martine Bergossi. Macron, a former investment banker, is 39, and his wife just turned 64. Most of the French women interviewed said a politician’s private life is not a reason to vote for or against him or her. In the United States, too, Trump’s two divorces, considerable age gap with his third wife, and even a recorded conversation in which he lewdly discussed groping women did not prevent his electoral victory. But just days before the French vote, nearly all women interviewed did say they were more interested in Macron, who was a virtual unknown until recently, because his marriage breaks the mold.
• Obama backs Macron in last-minute intervention in French election. (Guardian) — Former US president says centrist, who faces far-right Marine Le Pen in runoff, appeals to hopes not fears. Barack Obama has made a last-minute intervention in the French presidential election in support of Emmanuel Macron, saying “the success of France matters to the entire world”. Macron, a centrist, faces Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National in a runoff vote on Sunday. Polls put him 20 points ahead. The former US president said he had chosen to declare his support, in a video tweeted by Macron on Thursday afternoon, because of the importance of the election.
• Macron, Le Pen clash on euro, terrorism, in French pre-election TV showdown. (Reuters) — Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron clashed over their vision of France’s future, the euro and ways of fighting terrorism in an ill-tempered televised debate on Wednesday before Sunday’s run-off vote for the presidency. The two went into the debate with opinion polls showing Macron, 39, with a strong lead of 20 percentage points over the National Front’s Le Pen, 48, in what is widely seen as France’s most important election in decades. For Le Pen, the two-and-a-half hour debate, watched by millions, was a last major chance to persuade voters of the merits of her program which includes cracking down on illegal immigration, ditching the euro single currency and holding a referendum on EU membership. However, 63 percent of viewers found Macron more convincing than Le Pen in the debate, according to a snap opinion poll by Elabe for BFMTV, reinforcing his status as favorite to win the Elysee on Sunday. In angry exchanges, Le Pen played up Macron’s background as a former investment banker and economy minister, painting him as heir to the outgoing unpopular Socialist government and as the “candidate of globalisation gone wild.”
• Macron widens lead over Le Pen in final days before vote. Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron extended his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen in polls in the final days of a tense presidential campaign that has seen leftist voters threatening to abstain in large numbers. According to an Elabe poll for BFM TV and L’Express, Macron will garner 62 percent of the votes in Sunday’s second round compared to 38 percent for Le Pen, an increase of three points compared to Macron’s projected score in the last Elabe poll. It is Macron’s best showing in a major poll since nine other candidates were eliminated in the first round on April 23.

7am – B/C INTERVIEW – CHARLIE HURT – Washington Times

• HURT: Republicans eat another ‘crap sandwich’
• HURT: Shut up, Jimmy Kimmel, you elitist creep

7am – D House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday narrowly approved legislation to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, as Republicans recovered from their earlier failures and moved a step closer to delivering on their promise to reshape American health care without mandated insurance coverage. The vote, 217 to 213, held on President Trump’s 105th day in office, is a significant step on what could be a long legislative road.

7am – E INTERVIEW – REP. JIM JORDAN – R-OHIO, founding member of the Freedom Caucus, shared his thoughts on the health care bill vote.

8am – A INTERVIEW – SCOTT ALLEN – Sports reporter, Washington Post

• SPORTS NEWS:
• Wizards beat Celtics 116-89 in technical foul-filled Game 3. (AP) — John Wall scored 24 points, Isaiah Thomas was held to 13 and the Washington Wizards jumped out to a hot start and rode it to a 116-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in a technical foul-filled Game 3 on Thursday night to cut their series deficit to 2-1. The Wizards used a 22-0 first-quarter run to take a 34-12 lead as Thomas and the Celtics kept missing shots and turning the ball over. The game was already a blowout in the second when Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. was ejected for charging and knocking over Kelly Olynyk after the Boston big man was called for an illegal screen. There were eight technical fouls and three ejections total.
• CAPITALS have make or break game TOMORROW (SATURDAY) — Game 5 – tomorrow vs Penguins 7:15 PM
• Nationals beat Diamondbacks 4-2. Eight years later, Max Scherzer still finds a little extra motivation when he faces his first major league team. Scherzer struck out a season-high 11 to bounce back from his worst outing this season, and Washington defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 on Thursday after losing Bryce Harper to a groin injury.

8am – B/C INTERVIEW – SUSAN KOSISKY – allergy expert and chief microbiologist for the U.S. Army Centralized Allergen Extract Laboratory – discussed this Spring’s allergy season.

8am – D INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – Chief Congressional Correspondent, Washington Examiner – discussed the latest on budget / health care bills.

8am – E HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO! ALCOHOL MAKES STRAIGHT MEN GAY! In a new study, published in The Journal of Social Psychology, straight men were found to be more physically attracted to other men after a few drinks. “Most notably, alcohol intake was related to increased sexual willingness of men with a same-sex partner, suggesting a potential shift in normative casual sexual behavior among heterosexual men,” wrote the authors in the study.