now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMA L app O Conor and company. It is eight oh seven and we are finishing strong my friends as we always do little Sir Duke to let a fire under our behinds and push through the fourth hour of our program and of course on a Friday it's not just our fourth hour of today's show it's our 20th hour of the week if you missed any of our show please subscribe to our podcast and get it downloaded automatically to your device so over the weekend you can catch up and hear all of our segments and interviews and whatever you want. In fact coming up in 30 minutes you'll hear an interview with Anna Geertely she's a writer for the Washington Examiner. She's got a brand new book about crime and the warped criminal justice system in Washington DC told from her perspective a victim. That's coming up. I'm Larry O'Connor with Patrice on WUCA. Good morning Patrice. Good morning happy Friday everybody. We made it. We did. We made it and we're on the verge of a weekend where we're going to have beautiful weather 76 degree high today in the high 60s almost 70 degrees over the weekend. It's a great time to get down to the mall and enjoy what makes Washington DC so great all the monuments all of the amazing sites. People travel all around the world to come here and you've got it in your backyard my friends and of course if there's any cherry blossoms left you can get your last selfies with them. Let's bring in the chief of communications for the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the National Park Service friend of the program. Mike Litterist Mike are there any blossoms left to be Selfied with. Morning Larry morning Patrice and there are a very few blossoms left from the Quangen cherry trees. They blew a couple weeks after the Oshinos big sort of pom pom deep pink blossom even those are on their their last way out the Oshinos around the title base and of course you know we hit that we hit those couple of 80 degree days right after we hit peak bloom and that's sort of courage to leave so you a few Quangens if you look around East Potomac Park dumps down towards Haynes Point but if you're on the title basin and you're in your in the neighborhood the Tulip Garden is in full bloom and that is spectacular if you're looking for flowers we all like cherry blossoms they have their own special or but the colors the vibrant colors of the Tulips when they're all up that's pretty hard to beat so yeah and and by the way while you're hanging out there there's just a short walk to the rugby field and it's always fun to watch pick up rugby games out there as people knock themselves silly at some of my favorite part of walking around the mall. Hey real fast Mike do we have any stats on this year's cherry blossom festival and what the numbers were like because I saw some. Social media videos of people who I know that were down there and it looked loaded absolutely packed. It. I think loaded is probably the best scientific term to use right now. I know I know our friend Diana Mayhew from the National Cherry Blossom Festival estimated 1.6 million people over the course of the festival. So that's probably a good number and speaking of the festival. Even if there's not any blossoms left on the trees the festival wraps up on Saturday with the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival parade. Yes. So even if you can't see blossoms you can still celebrate the season. Constitution Avenue kicks off at 11 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. Terrific. Well Mike while folks are down on the National Mall it sounds like obviously the Lincoln Memorial is a place to visit and it sounds like part of the renovation projects has kind of wrapped up. Tell us what's going on with the Lincoln Memorial and how it's going to actually be easier to access the memorial itself. You know we are very excited. We are on the home stretch of putting in that new museum underneath the memorial in that big architage. It's known as the undercropped. We announced that in 2016. We have pledged that that will be the nation, be our gift to the nation for America's 250th. We expect to have an announcement the next couple weeks about the opening date. But if you've been down the Lincoln Memorial one of the things we were doing as part of this project was replacing the old antiquated elevator. We're actually putting in a second elevator to help people get from the ground level up to the chamber. One of those elevators is up and running and we just last week took down that enormous temporary accessibility ramp that had been out front for the last couple years. So that gorgeous view of the entire Lincoln Memorial no longer blocked with some construction and a large ramp. That's been restored again just in time for the busy spring and summer see you. Terrific. So when is the entire Lincoln Memorial project going to be completed or scheduled to be completed? Because there's still some work to do? Still doesn't work to do. We're finishing up the actual construction museum. Then we've got to install the exhibits. But I think safe to say by late spring early summer we'll have that open. Brand new 15,000 square foot facility. Going to give people additional information about life and legacy how the memorial was built and highlight some of the important historic events that have occurred at the memorial over the year. So again another couple weeks I think we'll have an announcement for the opening date. And obviously just in time for the 250th celebrations that are kind of ongoing but it's really going to intensify in summertime as we head toward July 4th. Mike, what how first of all I think frankly most importantly how security looking for all of these events I got a little bit of a press release on what's planned for the fireworks and it sounds like it's going to be absolutely historic but of course gatherings like this always have a certain security concerns. What should we know about that? So of course US Park Police is the National Park Services law enforcement arm and they work very closely with all of the law enforcement partners in the city starting with the Secret Service and MPD and all the various partners and of course all those law enforcement agencies are no stranger to keeping large historic events safe. You look at the inauguration the annual 4th of July celebration so they have been working together for months now continuing to work together to make sure that the event that takes place will be not only numberable but safe for all attendees. And what sticks out to you as you look at the programs you're starting to shape up what do you personally because you've seen it all Mike for crying out loud you've seen it all what do you sort of excited about when you heard all of the various events that are being planned what caught your eyes that oh okay I'll be moving forward to that one. You know that I obviously the 4th of July on the National Mall and the scale that they're talking this year you know the largest fireworks display in history I was nine years old on the mall for the bicentennial so personally I'm looking forward 50 years later to being back on the mall in a different role I think that would be great and I'm really looking forward to the Great American State Fair I think you know every one of the 50 states is going to have a pavilion on the mall and like a state fair live animals and everything that you would expect come together in one place walk up and down the mall and sort of get the best of everything that's America so I can't wait to see what takes place with that starting and going for two weeks. Are you all you're letting Ohio participate in that are you? I think their application is still being considered but I've got Ohio so I'm going to make sure that they get in. Yeah we'll keep it far away from the Michigan pavilion okay that's all I'm saying it's bad enough we have to share a border in real time but let's not cause any problems thank you Mike I appreciate it and congrats on the progress of the Lincoln Memorial it's actually amazing it seems to be clipping along really well. Yeah look forward to being on again talking about an open day with you. You bet. It is 815. Well the incredible journey of Artemis 2 concludes this evening and dare I say it's probably the most harrowing and dangerous part of the entire mission that's saying something considering what they've done and considering that a very dramatic and extraordinary lift off in the biggest rocket ever to propel humans off of the face of the earth and of course during this mission they have traveled farther into outer space than any human beings that we know of and I think that's a great thing to be a human beings that we know of but today they return and this evening around 753 okay. Orion will hit the upper atmosphere at about 24,000 miles per hour and they have to get the trajectory just right the heat shields which you can't really fully test until it actually experiences what it's been designed to experience that reentry and the friction involved with coming back into the atmosphere at that speed the heat shields will be tested the angle needs to be right there's not a lot of room for error and there will be about 6 minutes of radio silence where we will not hear from any of them any of the astronauts because of what they'll be going through and after the 6 harrowing minutes of silence we will know if everything's fine and they're on course for their splashdown off the coast of San Diego this is the most traumatic most dangerous moment of the entire mission and I'll be glued to my device watching it whether I'm I don't know where I'm going to be tonight at that time but I'll be watching it's going to be interesting because it's those moments where you're holding your breath you're wondering what's happening I always love watching what's going on in the control rooms where all of the the people who are the crew working to make sure that this flight lands safely they're glued to the screen trying to hope for some you know that this is a successful mission and the only analogy I have to this is when you've just delivered a baby Larry the seconds you're waiting for your child to cry that to me that's what it's similar to you're waiting to hear that first sign of life and sometimes the nurse has to slap the slap the little bum bum to for the baby to kind of catch his breath do they still do that? I've done this twice and in both moments when that child came out of my body I was waiting for that I was holding my breath waiting for that and that's the analogy that I have in waiting to see that our astronauts come back safely well and you remember if anybody has you know a lot of people don't have firsthand memory of our space program leading up to and through Apollo I only have personal memories of the very end of Apollo but most of us know about it from the great films that have been made from the right stuff to the great miniseries on the Tom Hanks produced for HBO was it from the Earth to the Moon I think it was but that moment in the right stuff when John Glenn knows that there's something wrong with his heat shield and that marine is strapped in to to his friendship capsule and they have that silence that same silence back in the late 50's or I think that was 1961 if I remember right and the that horrible silence as they don't know if the heat shield worked John Glenn could have been you know blown to smithereens as he entered the atmosphere and burned up or he could have made it with that damage to the heat shield and he made it but that part of the movie is probably the most tense and the most traumatic moment and these four astronauts will experience it tonight couple of other items on the Artemis true mission Jared Isaacman not getting nearly enough attention I think as the administrator of NASA he's a multi-millionaire he founded a payment processing company and a couple of other ventures he's not taking a salary as NASA administrator or what he takes it but then donates it to space camp he refuses to use government planes and there's an amazing image out of mission control in Houston with just stacks and stacks and stacks of hundreds of pizza pizzas for the mission control team because you know they're all working 24-7 people are sleeping on the floor yeah so he had hundreds of pizzas delivered to the mission control team that he paid for he's really I think exactly who you want in the position as NASA administrator he represents exactly what America is about and he's sort of following in the model of the president frankly well and when you listen to him speak in interviews his energy is infectious you know his creativity is he's been there he's been to space himself so he passes that on and I think he views it blessed from a bureaucratic standpoint probably which is why he approaches it as though every tax dollar needs to go towards the actual mission not towards you know people eating lunch or whatever the case is and so you know I love listening to him speak when he's talking about the missions agreed because he talks about he doesn't talk about it like a bureaucrat like you said or some nerdy technocrat he talks about it with regard to the romance and vision not just to the exploration and what we can achieve but how it will apply back to our lives and why it's so important also it's been noted that in the past and I didn't realize this until just today that this Artemis crew their ages are 47, 49 and 250 year olds in other words Gen X for the win it's Gen X in space this is my generation talking about my generation and I didn't realize it because they're all incredibly young looking and fit like a falder in a new arm sorry who actually landed on the moon the first time they were in like their late 30's but they look older than these guys it's amazing they're a good shape these dudes I mean not that those guys weren't in good shape but these guys are my fellow gen Xers who you know if you hear from you know snot in those little gen Zers or obnoxious millennials that in some way you're a boomer you're going to get a lot of money. You're going to get a lot of money. You're going to get a lot of money. You're going to get anything done. You point up into space. You point up to the moon. You point up to the Artemis crew when you say, Yeah, sit down, youngster. Gen X has got this. We got this. Covered. Thank you very much. That's why I'm starting to lean toward Rubio over Vance just because I don't want Gen X overlooked. I need I need me a Gen X president. Yeah, Vance is technically a millennial. I love I like the boat. He's a Caribbean man who has lots of money. He's got a lot of money and he's got a lot of money. He's got a lot of money. He's 23. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the W M a l app O'Connor and company. You may. Yeah. I could do all four hours on Bugs Bunny cartoons. That's how Gen X I am, but I'm not gonna. We're going to move on here. Patrice on WCA as we prepare for speaking of Bugs Bunny cartoons. Chris Plant comes out and he's going to be talking about the story of Ben Chriotty. That's what he does, and he'll be joining us here in 30 minutes. That's Patrice on WCA. I. Am Larry O'Connor joining us right now. Anna Geretelli. She's a Washington Examiner reporter. She's got a brand new book called Under Assault and. For listeners of this program. You've heard this story. Um the condensed version as Anna joined us today. It's now turned into this book under assault and Anna. First of all, I applaud you for your courage. Victims don't speak out enough and your. Uh. The the attack that you had to endure is so important in terms of telling the story of young women working in D. C. But also what you learned about our criminal justice system. It is so relevant to everyone living in America right now, because you've heard this story because too many wouldn't do it, and you did. Thank you, Larry, and Patrice. I mean, I turned your right. My most personal tragedy into my. My best piece of journalism because I ended up finding a story, and I wanted to use it to encourage. Since 1998, 17 million American women have been victims of women living with this shame and with this and and we just don't talk about it So I wanted to talk about it. Well and and what needs to be talked about I think I mean beyond that and I appreciate it again The book is under assault. I'm gonna say the name of this book over and over so everybody buys it It's under assault under assault is the name of the book because there's a double entendre there obviously the salt that you had to Endure which is horrible But then when you found out in an era of virtue signaling from politicians the very politicians that run Washington DC Who like to make a lot of noise about how they stand with women and protect women? What you learned about how the criminal justice system in DC operates is an absolute Scandal please lay that out for everybody so they know exactly what happened after your assault It is it's disgusting So after my attacker was arrested by DC police the judge let him out of jail the following day the following day and in the following day he Already had a criminal record. They knew who he was before he attacked me And and I found out it sentencing he had already Assaulted another woman prior to assaulting me and was on the loose for that And so in the process of going to court and and seeing justice served He was arrested five more times for other other offenses exposing himself to us to a Supreme Court staffer Caught was a machete outside my apartment And they released him again the following day all five times and it was only when we went to trial Finally in 2022 they said we're gonna hold him because we're going to trial. We're ready to move now and At the end I found out it took off so I left DC. I said I'm not safe here I can't protect myself. They're doing more to look out for his well-being than my well-being and so I left and He went to prison for what he did which was you know good. It was great But he got about two years for all of those offenses wrapped up. So he's back out in DC now and When I went to look for my staff in the DC crime staff online It wasn't there and they told me sorry. It wasn't a wasn't a first-degree felony We only put first-degree felonies in the crime map and so I I said But he went to prison. This wasn't a small thing. This wasn't a pickpocket, you know And they said that's just how we that's just how we do crime here. And so to me that was the biggest Honestly stab in the back from the DC police Well, and I think it underscores the questions that many of us have about the crime statistics how they are Collected what is collected? What is ignored? How it's categorized? You know how what what crimes get what types of penalties how what gets downgraded and what gets, you know, you know Published, you know as you know worse than other crimes You know, what what do you say to the local officials the police? officials and and DC leadership the city council and the mayor about your story and about you know, just what it means From a crime standpoint and how the crime statistics are are really Meet it out here Yeah, there's no integrity in the system There's you can't before I moved I actually looked at the crime map because I work with federal law enforcement every day I knew about the crime map and I used it to decide where to move and now that I know it doesn't mean anything You know that that's a huge issue and and and police and and city they know exactly what they're doing And I don't think DC is the only police department that categorizes or doesn't put certain crimes on its crime map and The issue it for the for the Trump administration Since this is their backyard is if you want to clean up crime in DC You need to understand the breadth of crime in DC and just one quick example is the August August of last year showed that there were 53 sexual abuse Crimes in DC for the year which would be a pretty incredible thing That was just the first degree sober so so great That doesn't include second and third degree. So so without that you have a very inaccurate picture of what crime actually is in in the city You can't you can't know how bad it is and if you're actually making progress cleaning it up The book is under assault a crime reporter's true story overcoming sexual trauma and exposing injustice it talks about Anna's experience here working in Washington DC as a young woman and And what she had to endure not just the assault but then the the injustice of the criminal justice system and the way It's run and managed here in Washington, which sadly is Duplicated in so many other major cities in this country that have the same kind of leadership Anna as you were writing this book I'm sure you reached out to various people within the district of Columbia Judicial system law enforcement tried to get them on record to explain things to you. Was there any response? Did anybody even talk to you? The DC police department has responded in 2020 and then again last year and just Admitted no, we don't include all crimes if you dig on the website on the crime path page You can find what we do and don't include and why But but no no one's giving me answers and I've you know when I wrote the op-ed last last August And they got millions of views and the DC police and officials were tagged throughout that You know I asked I said I just explained to me just helped me understand and I've never heard back So, you know, I don't expect to hear back now But I want to keep the issue alive and keep other people aware because the victims who are not counted Don't know they're not counted. They changed how they're how they're reporting it now So instead of putting pins on maps for crime, they're putting colored colored neighborhoods Different shades of certain colors on the neighborhood. So you can't even tell now if if you're included or not Well, thank you for writing the book. Thanks for letting us be a part of getting the word out and continuing to keep this story alive and And thanks for continuing to do the great work that you do at the examiner. Thanks, Anna Thank you so much guys. The book is under assault get it Read the story and if you've got any young woman in your life. It's coming to DC for a job and internship or what have you? Make sure you read it and that they read it. So they exactly understand what they're getting into it is 845 Vince colonies is redefining news talk. I'm Vince Collins host of the Vince podcast I'm bringing you the truth beneath the headlines of all of the nation's top stories in depth interviews We feature newsmaking interviews with the top guests on the whole planet And I'll ask the questions you only dream of other interviewers asking and a front row seat to the most important conversations of the day There's a show with an obsessive focus on what's good for America. You are going to love Vince The Vince show following listen on your favorite platform We've been talking about this for years now these gangs of kids on ATVs and dirt bikes who actually wreak havoc in DC's Streets some Maryland streets as well in Prince George's County Patrice just outside of DC Borders, yeah, I've seen them many times in Maryland. It's illegal These people may hit this this little boy. I've seen this in Maryland streets It's not entertaining and it needs to be cracked down on and it's not a cultural thing That when they say cultural they're just it's code word for black And so because it's black out of control behavior. It's supposed to be okay. We'll turn a blind eye to it No, it doesn't matter the color of the driver It matters that the behavior is dangerous and unsafe if you want to pop wheelies go in the woods and do it Go go go somewhere else, but not on the streets of the city It reinforces the message that so many of us here having those of us who live in the area and tourists that are coming here or refusing to come here that the DC government protects the criminal and renders this city unsafe for the innocent citizens taxpayers who are supposed to be enjoying Safety in this town and it's our nation's capital. It's 853. Hey there. I'm Paula Pan I help people make the smartest money decisions possible So, you know what's been great about being a saver for money to bank and that money over the past couple of years has made a pretty good yield Pre-pandemic money was making zero now. It's actually making something, but that's starting to go down down down I love how we can play the fact that inflation has been really high As a positive, but if you're a saver, you know what that means Cho-ching silver lining Joe silver lining afford anything follow and listen on your favorite platform
