Boston Public Radio

"We have the capacity to force a vote, and I think it’s time we do that," the Massachusetts senator said.

The governor acknowledged criticism from lawmakers but insisted the current mix of state and local efforts is most effective.

Students and advocates are calling on Harvard University to acknowledge its role in slavery and offer reparations.

Healey tells Boston Public Radio she supports legislation to update the state's existing hate crime laws.

If reparations to slavery were enacted before the pandemic, COVID-19 transmission and deaths could have been mitigated dramatically, according to Dr. Michelle Morse.

Andrea Cabral speaks about concerns regarding the 845 unvaccinated members of the State Police.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Medical ethicist Art Caplan talked about the President’s use of hydroxychloroquine, and ethical dilemmas raised by an expedited coronavirus vaccine. We opened lines to ask listeners: should people be deliberately exposed to COVID-19 if it means getting a vaccine faster? CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem explained why she thinks Americans shouldn’t rush to return to the office, and talked about how the U.S. ought to go about reopening. We aired live audio from Gov. Charlie Baker’s Wednesday press conference. Massachusetts Director of Transportation Chris Dempsey discussed what the next few months are going to look like for Mass Transit under Gov. Baker’s reopening plan, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s proposal to open up more streets to pedestrians and businesses. We reopened our lines to ask listeners: are you ready to return to the office, or are you happy working from home?

Today on Boston Public Radio: Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung discussed Gov. Baker’s reopening plan, and how businesses and health experts are responding to the news. NBC Sports Boston reporter Trenni Kusnierek discussed the slow return of recreational sports to Massachusetts, and the slim likelihood that the Boston Marathon will take place in September. We opened our lines to talk with listeners about eating and shopping out in the open, and whether steps like these would make you feel better about the state reopening its economy. Filmmaker Sasha Joelle Achilli talked about her new FRONTLINE documentary, "Inside Italy’s COVID War.” CNN’s John King went over the latest political news out of D.C., from the debate in Congress over aid spending, to the recent firing of the State Department's inspector general.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We aired live audio of Gov. Charlie Baker’s Monday press conference, where he unveiled his administration’s plan for reopening Massachusetts. We opened our lines to hear your thoughts on the governor’s reopening strategy. Boston Medical Center’s Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett discussed health concerns around COVID-19, and took questions from callers.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened lines to talk with listeners about reopening the streets of Boston to pedestrians, and the upsides of having fewer cars on the road. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed the damaging impact anti-vax conspiracies could have on an eventual coronavirus vaccine, and the memorials people are creating in the video game Animal Crossing. Beat the Press host Emily Rooney discussed concerns over coronavirus misinformation, and read her weekly list of fixations and fulminations. Media maven Sue O’Connell talked about gun-toting, anti-lockdown protesters, and gave her take on teenagers ordering alcohol in quarantine. Basic Black host Callie Crossley discussed the latest news on the death of Amaud Arbery, and the Texas salon owner who garnered media attention for defying lockdown orders while quietly accepting $18,000 in PPP loans. We reopened our lines to talk with listeners about cooking in quarantine.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio *on Thursday to speak about his new set of guidelines to help restaurants reopen. Kummer has noticed many different restaurant safety guidelines regarding COVID-19. "I saw those, and thought maybe it would be good if there was one streamlined set of guidelines, and through my Aspen Institute program, I was able to line up funding." Through the Aspen Institute, Kummer has released a set of guidelines this week called "Safety First: Serving Food and Protecting People During Covid-19." "They're focused entirely on worker safety in back of the house and everything in these guidelines is to keep workers safe during COVID-19," he said. "The most important thing is figuring out who is sick, keeping them out of work, and of course having flexible sick time." *Kummer is a *senior editor at The Atlantic*, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.