'The Daily Show': who will take over for Jon Stewart?

Let the comedy stampede begin. Jon Stewart's announcement of his departure from the anchor desk at Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" later this year is sure to set off a frenzy of jockeying among comedy talent to fill his considerable shoes.

There's no doubt that "Daily Show" will continue on in its current form after Stewart exits. Comedy Central execs see the half-hour faux newscast as a franchise in "The Tonight Show" vein that can run for decades. Stewart took over the show in 1999 from original host Craig Kilborn.

Comedy Central execs have been preparing for the possibility that Stewart would move on as his most recent contract wound down this year. Whoever follows him on the show will face the extremely tricky task of keeping it vital in the political and cultural arenas.

Stewart's gift has been to tackle headline-making subjects with humor but also enough bite and perspective to make the show relevant to the national conversation on everything from presidential campaigns to divisive social issues. Stewart, by many accounts, is not only is the face of the show but also the driver of many editorial decisions.

The immediate speculation about possible successors ranged from the show's existing pool of correspondents to female candidates given the lack thereof in the latenight arena.

Some speculated that "Daily Show's" husband-and-wife correspondent team Samantha Bee and Jason Jones could take over with a dual-anchor format, which would be a first for the show. The two shot a family comedy pilot for TBS, "Vacationland," late last year that they co-wrote and star in. But undoubtedly anchor slots at "Daily Show" would be hard for them to turn down if offered.

Bee has been with "Daily Show" since 2003; Jones joined the roster two years later.

Other female names mentioned included Amy Schumer, who has scored with the Comedy Central audience with her "Inside Amy Schumer" series. Amy Poehler also has ties to the cabler as an exec producer of "Broad City," and she's just wrapped her seven-season run as the star of NBC's "Parks and Recreation." Sarah Silverman could be a contender, as could "Daily Show" alum Olivia Munn.

Another current "Daily Show" player, Aasif Mandvi has been regular since 2006 and has experience as a writer and in numerous stage and film productions. Jessica Williams is a fast-rising star who signed on in 2012, but she may be seen as not having enough experience yet to take the helm of the "Daily" machine.

Sources close to the situation said that Comedy Central honchos are still far from a decision and that all options -- from existing "Daily" players and alumni to established names to newcomers -- will be considered.

Chris Hardwick is in the Comedy Central family as host of "@midnight," the pop culture quiz and chat show that follows the "Daily Show/"Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" block. But his persona as a fan's fan might not be the right fit for the show that tackles weighty issues and non-celebrity interviews at times.

Established comedians including Joel McHale and Ricky Gervais could be in the mix as well. One name that is not on the market is John Oliver, the "Daily Show" alum who scored with his own weekly newscast-style show for HBO, "Last Week Tonight." Oliver has a long-term contract with HBO for the show, which bowed last year to generally rave reviews.

Industry insiders are also supremely curious about Stewart's next move. His longtime agent, James Dixon, just moved into the WME fold after selling his Dixon Talent banner to the agency.

Stewart signaled his interest in career moves beyond the "Daily Show" desk in 2013 when he took a hiatus from the show to direct his first movie, the indie drama "Rosewater," which was released late last year to a mixed reception and underwhelming B.O. But there's no question that Stewart will leave "Daily Show" later this year with immense clout and plenty of options.

"He's not quitting to do nothing," a top tenpercenter noted.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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The Ticker

Apple to build $850M solar farm

Apple has committed nearly $850 million to help build a solar energy farm that will generate power for its California facilities, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced yesterday.

Speaking at a technology conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, Cook revealed that Apple is partnering with First Solar to construct the 1,300-acre plant, which he hailed as one of the tech giant's most ambitious projects ever. Apple's two campuses, data center and all 52 Apple Stores in the state will draw power from the facility, which will be built in Monterey County, Cook said.

TODAY

 Treasury releases federal budget for January.

TOMORROW

 Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

 Commerce Department releases retail sales data for January.

 Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates.

 Commerce Department releases business inventories for December.

THE SHUFFLE

Boston-based cloud database system developer ScaleBase announced that David Valovcin has joined the company as executive vice president of field operations. Valovcin brings more than 30 years of experience including at IBM, Guardium, Courion and Pegasystems.

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Ten Mass. locales see big home value gains

Ten Bay State communities, including two Boston neighborhoods, saw big double-digit gains in home values in the past nine years.

According to a new Top 10 list compiled by the Warren Group, which publishes Banker and Tradesman, the 10 communities are Brookline, Belmont, Cambridge, Concord, Jamaica Plain, Lexington, Newton, Somerville, South Boston, and Winchester.

Forty-six communities are back above the 2005 peak prices they had before the economic crash, the group added.

Cambridge outperformed the rest of the Warren Group's Top 10 list, reporting median prices for a single-family home hitting $1.2 million in 2014, up from $667,500 in 2005.

That comes out to a 
79.8 percent increase in the median price.

Jamaica Plain, which shares a border with Brookline, was the runner-up, seeing prices rise to $700,000 in 2014 from $498,000 in 2005, a 40.6 percent increase.

Lexington and South Boston came in third and fourth, experiencing 
34.8 percent and 33.3 percent increases, respectively.

In Lexington, the price rose to $950,000 in 2014, while increasing to $545,000 in South Boston, an enclave that witnessed a 
44 percent increase in sales along with the growth in price.

Brookline came in at fifth place, with the median price in 2014 reaching $1.48 million from $1.1 million in 2005, a 32.6 percent increase.

Six of the top 10 communities had a 2014 median home price of $899,000 or higher, according to the Warren Group.

The rest of the top 10, in order, has Somerville (27.2 percent increase), Concord (26.1 percent), Belmont (24.9 percent), Newton (23.8 percent) and Winchester (23 percent).

Like South Boston, Lexington, Brookline and Concord saw sales increase with prices.

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Edward Davis joins firm that pinpoints indoor gunshots

Former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis has joined a Bay State tech company that is marketing technology to summon cops and pinpoint the location of gunshots in indoor shooter situations.

"Shooter Detection Systems is an extremely innovative company with excellent technology behind it," Davis said in a statement. "The Guardian Indoor Active Shooter Detection System gives law enforcement officials invaluable intelligence, and it gives innocent people inside a building that is under siege a chance to survive. I am very excited to be a part of things at SDS."

Davis, who will be a business development adviser, was the BPD commissioner from 2006 to 2013, and won national notice after the Boston Marathon bombings.

"When you think of law enforcement leaders in not only New England but across the country, the name Ed Davis instantly springs to mind. He is synonymous with policing and progressive law enforcement, and he is a true and proven leader," said SDS CEO Christian Connors.

SDS is targeting public institutions, corporations and malls with a product that operates much like the outdoor ShotSpotter system that Boston police use to quickly zero in on the location of street shooting incidents. Guardian Indoor was developed in cooperation with the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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Brian Wlliams suspended from NBC News for six months

Hoping to tamp down a controversy growing around one of its best-known on-air personalities, NBC News on Tuesday suspended Brian Williams, the most-watched evening-news anchor in the U.S., from his duties as chief anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" for six months without pay in the wake of a scandal over misleading statements he made about his time covering the Iraq War in 2003.

The furor over Williams' embellishments have engulfed NBC News since early last week, when his account of facing enemy fire while riding in a helicopter in 2003 was challenged by Iraq veterans. Williams' last broadcast took place on Friday. Lester Holt will continue as substitute anchor.

NBC News has launched an internal probe of Williams' statements about the Iraq helicopter incident as well as other reporting that has since been challenged, NBC News said in a statement released Tuesday evening.

"We have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field," NBC News president Deborah Turness said in a memo distributed Tuesday night.

Williams' suspension was "severe and appropriate," NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said in the statement, but he also asserted that Williams "deserves a second chance, and we are rooting for him" even though he called the anchor's actions "inexcusable."

The decision was made jointly by Turness; Pat Fili-Krushel, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, to whom Turness reports; and Burke.

At the heart of the matter is Williams' falsification during several public appearances and on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" of an incident that took place on a reporting trip to Iraq. A helicopter carrying Williams and his crew never came under fire, but a Chinook copter that was more than an hour ahead of that aircraft did. Williams by his own admission conflated the two air trips and made it seem as if he were under fire. Oddly enough, on a 2003 broadcast of "Dateline," Williams reported the trip more or less accurately.

For NBCU the ramifications of his actions may be severe. Williams' newscast has been the steadfast asset in NBCUniversal's entire news portfolio. Its "Today" morning show remains in second place behind "Good Morning America" after ceding the top spot in 2012. "Meet the Press" is trying to gain traction after the ouster of one anchor, David Gregory, and the installation of another, Chuck Todd. Business-news network CNBC is struggling in daytime, so much so that the company said it will no longer do business with advertisers based on Nielsen ratings starting in the fourth quarter of this year. And MSNBC is trying to recalibrate itself in the wake of a ratings drop after thriving as a liberal-tilting news network.

Under Williams, "Nightly" has successfully fended off a challenge from ABC's "World News." With new anchor David Muir at its helm, that evening newscast has made strides in the audience most coveted by advertisers in news programming, adults 25-54. Whether "Nightly News" can fend off Muir in Williams' absence remains to be seen.

In recent days, Williams' ability to anchor the newscast was thrown into increasing degrees of doubt. News outlets began investigating any number of claims he made about past reporting exploits, including time spent covering Hurricane Katrina. Questions were raised about why NBC News had not forced Williams to stop telling the helicopter tale. And the propriety of having an anchor who lied about his own on-the-job actions telling the nation about developments in the world of politics and foreign affairs seemed skewed.

"While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian's position," Turness said in the memo.

NBC is essentially following a textbook play. When other TV-network correspondents have made serious gaffes, their networks have suspended either them or their producers, sometimes both. In some cases, the reporter must struggle to find normalcy.

Claims made in a 2004 edition of the now-defunct "60 Minutes II" newsmagazine about President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard in the 1970s turned out to be based on documents that could not be authenticated. In the aftermath of that report, CBS set up an independent investigation, which led to the firing of the segment's supervisor. Three other supervising execs were asked to resign. The report tarnished the reputation of CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who delivered the segment.

In 2013, CBS News suspended "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan and a producer, Max McClellan, after a report they delivered on an Oct. 27 broadcast of the newsmagazine that year turned out to be based largely on the accounts of a source who provided inaccurate information. CBS made its decision after having Logan deliver an apology on air, and then investigating the process behind the report.

Williams has been a near-ubiquitous presence at NBC, making appearances on everything ranging from "Saturday Night Live" to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." For six months, at least, he will stay off the TV screen. All kinds of things can happen in half a year in the TV industry, and what happens at the end of Williams' suspension remains to be seen.

Here is Turness' full memo:

We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately. We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.

Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision.

While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian's position.

In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.

As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.

Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years. Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization.

As I'm sure you understand, this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.

This has been a difficult time. But NBC News is bigger than this moment. You work so hard and dedicate yourselves each and every day to the important work of bringing trusted, credible news to our audience. Because of you, your loyalty, your dedication, NBC News is an organization we can - and should - all be proud of. We will get through this together.

Steve Burke asked me to share the following message.

"This has been a painful period for all concerned and we appreciate your patience while we gathered the available facts. By his actions, Brian has jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News. His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate. Brian's life's work is delivering the news. I know Brian loves his country, NBC News and his colleagues. He deserves a second chance and we are rooting for him. Brian has shared his deep remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone's trust."

Deborah

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Jon Stewart's exit as a phony newsman is a loss to real news

NEW YORK — Jon Stewart's fans were gobsmacked by the sad news he delivered on Tuesday's edition of "The Daily Show": He's leaving his phony anchor desk and ending his reign as phony newsman, and the loss is to real news.

"This show doesn't deserve an even slightly restless host and neither do you," he told his audience. He said he might depart in July, September or maybe December. He didn't say what he means to do next.

To appreciate the impact of his 16-year Comedy Central reign, and the loss his impending exit represents, the distraught viewer need only consider Monday's broadcast.

It was then that Stewart turned his attention to what was the biggest story in the journalism biosphere that night: the scandal surrounding NBC News' Brian Williams.

Wearing a woeful expression, he summed up everyone's befuddlement with crystalline efficiency: "Bri! Why? Why, Bri? Why lie? Sigh."

By then hours upon hours of pontificating, grousing and hollow forecasts from other corners of the media had been focused on Williams, nailed a few days earlier for apparently fudging an account of his experience a decade ago covering the war in Iraq: He seemed to have misremembered that he wasn't, as he had declared repeatedly, shot out of the sky in a military helicopter.

Choppergate seemed custom-made for the cable-news universe. The endless talk supported by few known facts and snap-judgment calls for his dismissal — Off with his (talking) head! — accomplished little.

By contrast, in the tidy eight minutes or so that followed Stewart's silly rhyme, he proposed a shrewd diagnosis for what might have led Williams to muddle his Serious News cred with habitual visits to any talk show (including, of course, "The Daily Show") that would have him, where he could show off his charm as a wit and raconteur.

Stewart called it Infotainment Confusion Syndrome, a brain misfire that occurs, he said, "when the 'celebrity cortex' gets its wires crossed with the 'medulla anchor-gata.'"

Stewart had one more point to make. He mocked the mediaverse for obsessing over Williams' alleged misdeeds: "Finally SOMEONE is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq war."

"Never again," he added dramatically, "will Brian Williams mislead this great nation about being shot at in a war we probably wouldn't have ended up in, if the media had applied this level of scrutiny to the actual (bleep) war."

It was a splendidly crafted satiric fusillade, the sort of cheeky truth-telling no one but a self-styled fake news anchor would dare. And until Williams was suspended by NBC for six months roughly 24 hours later, Stewart had said everything that needed to be said.

Stewart didn't invent satire, but he modernized it and tailored it for an information age ruled by TV and the Internet. In compact "Daily Show" segments, he struck a blow against the flabby boundlessness of cable-news and talk-network fare.

No wonder political leaders, authors, scholars and others with useful things to say flocked to his show right along with celebs who came to pitch their latest projects. Stewart, playing his designated role as court jester, goaded them with humor to get them to say what they meant in ways "serious" interviewers can't or won't. In the process, he usually displayed them to their best advantage.

And on those rare occasions when the news was too awful to abide the usual sassiness and Stewart's passion burned through, viewers knew to take special note. On "The Daily Show," unlike so many "real" news dispensers, everything that happens ISN'T "Breaking News."

As the lead phony anchor, Stewart was the steward for a star system of supporting fake journalists. These included John Oliver, who last year launched HBO's investigative-comedy half-hour, "Last Week Tonight," and Larry Wilmore, who recently bowed in the post-Stewart slot with his as-yet-unproven "Nightly Show."

But Stewart's greatest protege is Stephen Colbert, whose "Colbert Report" was a masterful masquerade presided over by a willful nincompoop. The culture is much the poorer for Colbert's jump to CBS to host the slot vacated by David Letterman in what will likely be a conventional talk show.

And, now, fans have been hit with the second of a double whammy that no one let themselves see coming.

The timing of Stewart's departure could hardly be worse from the viewer's perspective, with the 2016 presidential campaign gearing up. In recent cycles, Stewart had made himself as much a part of the electoral process as ballot-counting disputes.

For that and many other reasons, it's hard to fathom the scope of the void he will leave. As a champion of enlightened phoniness in TV journalism, Stewart has proven himself to be one-of-a-kind, a fake who's unrivalled as the real deal.

_____

EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

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Stocks muted ahead of emergency meeting on Greek debt

SEOUL, South Korea — Global stocks were muted Wednesday as investors turned their focus to an emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers that will discuss Greece's appeal for more generous bailout conditions.

KEEPING SCORE: France's CAC 40 fell 0.4 percent to 4,675.42 and Germany's DAX edged down 0.2 percent to 10,737.80. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent to 6,799.73. Futures augured a weak start for Wall Street. S&P 500 and Dow futures were both down 0.2 percent.

GREEK DRAMA: Finance ministers from euro nations are holding an emergency meeting in Brussels on Greece later Wednesday, which will be the group's first opportunity to hear directly from the new government. Greece wants to renegotiate the terms of its international bailout that has imposed years of punishing austerity on the country; the current agreement expires in late February. Speculation that Greece could be granted extra time to hold new negotiations buoyed markets Tuesday. On Wednesday, however, there was somewhat less optimism — the Athens index was down over 3 percent.

THE QUOTE: "The headlines out of this meeting will dictate the price action for global markets," Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG, said in a commentary. "At the moment, it seems European leaders and Greece are willing to meet each other in the middle and this has comforted investors' concerns after the aggressive tone by Greek Prime Minister Tsipras over the weekend."

ASIA'S DAY: South Korea's Kospi rose 0.5 percent to 1,945.70 and China's Shanghai Composite added 0.5 percent to 3,157.70. Stocks in Southeast Asia and Taiwan also rose. Hong Kong was among the few Asian markets in the red; the Hang Seng fell 0.9 percent to 24,315.02. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent to 5,769.10. Japan was closed for a holiday.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 29 cents to $49.73 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.84 to close at $50.02 a barrel on Tuesday. The International Energy Agency said that the recent rebound in oil prices "will be comparatively limited in scope."

CURRENCIES: The dollar strengthened to 119.75 yen from 119.35 yen. The euro inched down to $1.1316 from $1.1319.

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Rite Aid spends $2B on push into pharmacy benefit management

Drugstore chain Rite Aid will use a $2 billion purchase of EnvisionRx to stretch its reach into managing pharmacy benefits in a deal that also builds its stake in two hot growth areas, specialty pharmaceuticals and Medicare prescription drug coverage.

Shares of the nation's third-largest drugstore chain surged Wednesday after it announced that it will pay $1.8 billion in cash and $200 million in stock for EnvisionRx, a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, owned by the investment firm TPG.

PBMs run prescription drug plans for customers like employers and insurers. They process mail-order prescriptions and handle bills for prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies. EnvisionRx also offers services in a growing area for prescription drug spending, specialty pharmacy, and a national Medicare prescription drug plan.

Rite Aid, which does not have a PBM business, will enter a market brimming with competition from large, national players like Express Scripts Holding Co., which serves about 85 million people, and rival drugstore operator CVS Health Corp.

But Chairman and CEO John Standley told analysts Wednesday morning that the deal was a "logical step" for a company that has gained strength over the past few years.

The Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based company runs 4,569 drugstores, a total that trails Walgreen Co. and CVS Health. It has worked aggressively to clean up its performance by paring debt, closing underperforming stores and installing in others a new wellness theme that features more organic food and personal care products, among other items.

Wednesday's announcement came nearly two months after Rite Aid said its fiscal third-quarter earnings jumped 47 percent in a performance that trumped Wall Street expectations.

Standley said that by pairing an established retail pharmacy network with a PBM, Rite Aid can provide more benefits that help customers manage their health better.

"The dynamics in the marketplace today are reshaping how we must serve our customers," he said, adding that those customers now control health care decisions and are increasing their focus on cost.

The deal also gives Rite Aid stronger footing in the market for specialty drugs, complex and expensive medicines that are becoming a growing source of revenue for drugstore chains.

EnvisionRx, which is based in Twinsburg, Ohio, provides benefits for about 21 million people and serves a range of employers, including the supermarket chain Safeway. It is projected to bring in about $5 billion in revenue this year.

The boards of directors for both companies have approved the acquisition, which is expected to close in September.

Shares of Rite Aid climbed more than 9 percent, or 72 cents, to $8.30 Wednesday morning, while broader trading indexes fell slightly.

That stock price, which slipped below $1 in late 2012, soared 49 percent last year, more than quadrupling the 11.4 percent advance of the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

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Britain starts public trial of driverless cars

LONDON — Driverless cars are hitting Britain's public roads for the first time, giving a glimpse of future travel that's billed as safer and more efficient.

Britain unveiled four prototype self-drive cars Wednesday, launching the country's first public trials ahead of a series of planned rule reviews to accommodate the new technology.

Officials showed off four types of autonomous vehicles under trial, including a shuttle that looks like a larger golf cart and a compact two-seater "pod." Journalists were invited to take short rides on the shuttle, which zipped around a public square outside central London's O2 Arena as curious pedestrians looked on.

The project was "still in the early days," Transport Minister Claire Perry said, but she added the new technology has the potential to make roads safer and attract global investment.

Britain has ambitions to lead development in driverless cars, which are also being tested in U.S. cities by companies including Google. Auto companies from Mercedes-Benz to Nissan are also developing self-drive vehicles, though most are not ready to go on public roads and highways commercially.

Regulation and legal changes are a major hurdle. Officials say fully driverless cars are unlikely to be used on British roads until 2030.

Britain's government, which is spending 19 million pounds (US$29 million) on four trial centers around the country, says it will amend and review domestic road regulations by 2017. One focus will be on establishing liability when a self-drive car crashes.

"Until that key concern is clarified, probably by statute, many drivers will remain wary of 'driverless' driving," said Edmund King, president of drivers' organization AA.

The next immediate step is for officials to publish guidelines for companies to test the cars in "real-life scenarios" on roads — including highways — by this summer. Qualified drivers will be riding in the cars, ready to take control should anything go awry.

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Greg Anthony reaches agreement on prostitution charge

WASHINGTON — Basketball analyst Greg Anthony will have a soliciting prostitution charge dropped if he does 32 hours of community service and stays out of trouble for four months.

Anthony, his attorney and a prosecutor told a D.C. Superior Court judge Wednesday that they had agreed to the deal, called a deferred prosecution agreement, which is common in low-level misdemeanor cases in the city. Anthony, 47, will be allowed to complete the community service hours in Florida, where he lives.

The former NBA player only spoke briefly in court to acknowledge he wanted to enter into the agreement and understood it. Both Anthony and his attorney, Danny Onorato, declined to comment after the hearing.

Anthony was arrested at a Washington hotel on Jan. 16 on a charge of soliciting prostitution. A court document describing the arrest says he responded to an escort ad authorities placed on a classifieds website Backpage.com and arranged "a date" with an undercover officer. When he met the undercover officer at a hotel room she told him she would charge him $80 for intercourse, the document says. Asked "you want me to dress up," Anthony allegedly responded "oh yeah."

Anthony was suspended by CBS and Turner Sports following his arrest, and he apologized in a statement to his wife, family and colleagues, calling his actions a "lapse of judgment."

Anthony played 11 seasons in the NBA with six teams, from 1991-92 to 2001-02, including the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers.

He had been in the Washington area to announce a basketball game between Michigan State and Maryland.

___

Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

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