Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, CNN’s Dylan Byers and guest host Vince Coglianese joined WMAL on Wednesday!
Mornings on the Mall
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Vince Coglianese
Executive Producer: Heather Hunter
5am – A Q & A with VINCE COGLIANESE, Daily Caller’s Editor-In-Chief
5am – B Republican-led Congress denies D.C. delegate a vote. Again. (Washington Post) — On the first day of the 115th Congress, members buzzed Tuesday about the repeal of President Obama’s health-care law, tax reform and whether to gut the ethics office. All Eleanor Holmes Norton wanted to discuss was a vote. And a symbolic one at that. For the fourth consecutive session, Norton (D), the nonvoting D.C. representative, formally asked the speaker of the House for the ability to vote on amendments and procedural issues. Again, she was thwarted.
5am – C Lights Out for Washington Monument. (NBC Washington) — It is a prominent image in the skyline of Washington, D.C., but it was a dark blot as the lights at the Washington Monument went out Tuesday night. Pepco said the problem is not on their end. A spokesman for the National Park Service said they are trying to get the light back on. The spokeman said preliminary investigation indicated an issue with the automated program that controls the lights likely caused the outage at the Washington Monument. NPS electricians will confirm the possible problem Wednesday morning.
5am – D Megyn Kelly will leave Fox News after 12 years to join NBC. Megyn Kelly, the popular cable news anchor who clashed with president-elect Donald Trump during his campaign, is leaving Fox News after 12 years to join rival NBC. The surprise appointment was announced Tuesday by NBC News Chairman Andy Lack, who personally handled the negotiation to lure Kelly away from the top-rated cable news channel. Kelly’s future had drawn heavy interest following management upheaval at Fox News last year. By poaching her from Fox News, NBC added an ascending news star to its anchor lineup and keeps her away from competitors CNN and ABC, which had expressed interest in signing her. “Megyn is an exceptional journalist and news anchor, who has had an extraordinary career,” Lack said in a memo sent to staffers. “She’s demonstrated tremendous skill and poise, and we’re lucky to have her.” Kelly, 46, is getting a daytime show, which could be scheduled after the “Today” show, where it can take advantage of the program’s lead-in. Kelly has also been promised a prime-time news magazine that will air on Sundays during the months when the network is not carrying “Sunday Night Football.” She will also be part of the network’s political and special event coverage. There is no provision for her to work for NBC’s cable news channel MSNBC.
5am – E ASSANGE’S HANNITY INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Julian Assange: Russian government not the source of leaked emails
Wikileaks’ Assange: ‘A 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta’ emails
6am – A/B/C Driverless Cars: Are You Ready To Give Up Control?
Driverless cars get trade show treatment in Las Vegas. LAS VEGAS — A host of autonomous autos are hitting the road at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show. Ford Motor Co. is showing off a prototype driverless vehicle based on its Fusion hybrid. Fiat Chrysler will demonstrate a semi-autonomous minivan and discuss its alliance with Waymo, the Google spin-off company that’s been working for years on self-driving cars. Honda is expected to demonstrate a small electric autonomous prototype. And then there’s Hyundai, which started offering ride-alongs in its new computer-controlled Ioniq sedan to curious journalists on Tuesday, two days before the show’s official opening. “Everyone’s getting in because they have to,” said Mike Ramsey, automotive technology analyst for Gartner Inc. “If you want to be taken seriously, you’ve got to get into the game.” And yet Ramsey cautioned that fully autonomous cars are nowhere near ready to conquer the roads. Even if Ford fulfills its pledge at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show to start selling such a car by 2021, Ramsey said that the vehicle would probably sell for around $100,000, largely because of the expensive computers, sensors, and software needed to make it work.
‘Kids born today will never drive,’ says Robot Valley champion. Hired in July to run University of California (UC) San Diego’s new Contextual Robotics Institute, Danish-born Professor Henrik Christensen says in a recent interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune: “My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car.”
6am – D Ivanka Trump Will Move into a House in Kalorama. (Washingtonian) – Washington Fine Properties co-owner William F.X. Moody tells Washingtonian that Ivanka Trump has completed a deal for a house in DC. A team of Washington Fine Properties agents represented Trump. The firm also represented the house’s owner in the transaction. Moody would not disclose the house’s location, citing contractual obligations to the client not to share that information. However, multiple real-estate sources say Trump and husband Jared Kushner will move into 2449 Tracy Pl, NW, in Kalorama. That will put the couple less than two blocks from the Obamas, who will reportedly move here post-White House. The six-bedroom house at 2449 Tracy Place sold on December 22nd for $5.5 million, though it is unclear whether Trump and Kushner bought it, or will rent it from the recent buyer.
6am – E House Republicans drop plan to gut ethics office. (USA Today) — WASHINGTON — After public denunciations from watchdogs and criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, House Republicans on Tuesday reversed course and dropped plans to gut an independent agency that polices potential ethical wrongdoing by lawmakers. The controversy over GOP plans to sharply curtail the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics overshadowed the opening day of Congress, where Republicans control both chambers and soon will welcome a Republican president for the first time in eight years.
6am – F Coal Fire, Not Just Iceberg, Doomed the Titanic, a Journalist Claims. (NY Times) — LONDON — Maybe it wasn’t just the iceberg. Ever since the Titanic sank more than 104 years ago, killing more than 1,500 men, women and children, mystery has swirled around the tragedy. No one doubts that the ship collided at high speed with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. But a new documentary posits that the sinking of the ship — hailed at the time as the largest ever built, and praised for its professed unsinkability — may have been accelerated by a giant coal fire in its hull that appeared to have started as long as three weeks before it set off on its fateful journey to New York from Southampton, England. In the documentary, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in Britain on New Year’s Day, Senan Molony, an Irish journalist who has spent more than 30 years researching the Titanic, contends that the fire, in a three-story-high bunker next to one of the ship’s boiler rooms, damaged its hull, helping to seal its fate long before it slammed into the iceberg.
7am – A INTERVIEW — MORGAN WRIGHT- Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government, former executive at Cisco & Alcatel-Lucent and former senior advisor for the US Department of State Antiterrorism Assistance Program
Hannity Interview: Wikileaks founder Assange: Russia wasn’t the source of DNC and Hillary hacked emails
Wikileaks’ Assange: ‘A 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta’ emails
7am – B Critter News:
“Sir Hiss”: Anaconda found in Arlington County apartment toilet. WASHINGTON — An Arlington County animal control team was surprised when a call about a snake in an apartment’s toilet last week turned out to be a much larger reptile. On Dec. 27, Arlington County Animal Control received a call about a snake in a toilet at an apartment building in the South Arlington area on South 31st Street — not an uncommon occurrence, said Chelsea Lindsey, the agency’s communication specialist. “Usually those calls are nothing we are too concerned about,” Lindsey said. “Normally we deal with smaller snakes [in toilets] like wild snake or ball pythons, but we discovered it wasn’t a python, it was a yellow anaconda.” The anaconda, which Lindsey estimates was between 4 and 5 feet long, stayed with Arlington County Animal Control for a few days until a specialist familiar with the species could take it away and care for it. Fully grown, yellow anacondas can be up to 13 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. No one was injured during the rescue. While the yellow anaconda is not venomous, the species can be dangerous when they reach full size and are not well socialized. During the rescue, the anaconda — which the animal control team named “Sir Hiss” — was scared of the situation, instead of aggressive.
In Unpleasant Feat, Baltimore Tops List of Bed Bug-Infested Cities. (Baltimore Fishbowl) — Baltimore has another pest-related accomplishment to add to its resume, courtesy of the bug- and mouse-obsessed folks over at Orkin. The pest control professionals released a list today that says Charm City is the most bed bug-infested city in the country. Baltimore made a troublingly ambitious rise in the rankings since last year, when it placed 10th on a list of 50 cities. In 2016, we supplanted Chicago, which fell from first to third, and jumped Washington D.C, New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit and Philadelphia, among other cities in the top 10. “In the six years Orkin has released the bed bug city rankings, this is the first time Baltimore has made the top five,” the company said excitedly on its website.
7am – C So Tony Kornheiser, Maury Povich and Gary Williams walk into a classic D.C. bar. Then they buy it. (Washington Post) — Tony Kornheiser announced on his podcast Tuesday that an ownership group that includes himself, former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams and TV host Maury Povich purchased Chad’s, the longtime Friendship Heights restaurant and bar. Kornheiser said the group plans to rename the former Chadwick’s, soliciting naming suggestions from his podcast listeners, among others. He also said he would like to put a studio in the Wisconsin Avenue hangout, where he could record his podcasts and potentially host other local podcasters. The news was strongly hinted at in a Washington Post piece earlier this week. (I’m trying to figure out how Kornheiser, Williams and Povich rank in celebrity status. I’m failing.) The restaurant, located a few blocks from the Maryland-D. C. border, has long been a favorite haunt for media personalities, including many veteran sportswriters and employees of the nearby Fox 5, where Povich once worked. It’s also long been a gathering spot for coaches from American University, where Williams once worked. Former WTEM host Rich Gilgallon is a former Chadwick’s bartender, and some of your favorite D.C. broadcasters have probably been there once or twice.
7am – D INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – President of Judicial Watch
House Republicans drop plan to gut ethics office. (USA Today) — WASHINGTON — After public denunciations from watchdogs and criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, House Republicans on Tuesday reversed course and dropped plans to gut an independent agency that polices potential ethical wrongdoing by lawmakers.
Judicial Watch Calls Upon House to Retain Congressional Ethics Office. (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton today made the following statement regarding the proposed change to House rules that would eliminate its Office of Congressional Ethics: “It is shameful that House Republicans are trying to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics, the most significant ethics reform in Congress when it was established nearly a decade ago. This drive-by effort to eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics, which provides appropriate independence and transparency to the House ethics process, is a poor way for the Republican majority to begin “draining the swamp.” The American people will see this latest push to undermine congressional ethics enforcement as shady and corrupt. The full House should seriously consider whether it wants to bear the brunt of public outrage and go through with the rule change this afternoon.”
7am – E Wendy’s Owned A Twitter Troll So Hard They Deactivated Their Account. (Buzzfeed) — Last week, the Wendy’s Twitter account posted this tweet about how the company only uses fresh beef.
Wendy’s @Wendys: Our beef is way too cool to ever be frozen.