Boston Public Radio

Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins is on the short list to be the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.

The former Department of Homeland Security official also said she's hoping to see Republicans embrace Biden's calls for unity.

The variant — B.1.1.7 — has reached the state this week, according to the state's Department of Public Health.

While coronavirus cases are up everywhere, mayoral candidate and city councilor Andrea Campbell says some predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods in Boston have borne the brunt of infections.

Paris Jeffries spoke optimistically about the range of citywide efforts to confront Boston's deep racial inequties.

The Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price reflect on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "The Other America" speech.

Naturalist Sy Montgomery spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about how other animal species practice social distancing when signs of disease show in their communities. “When something is off, that might draw predators to your group, so you want to get away from the one who’s going to attract the shark or hyena,” she said. “If someone has a contagious disease, you want to get you and your family away from that disease, so a lot of animals will isolate.” This behavior isn’t true of all animal species however, Montgomery noted. “Elephants, for example, will stay by a sick or dying animal and not leave their side, and dogs are the same, they’ve been known to stay by their master’s graveside.” Montgomery is a journalist, naturalist and a BPR contributor. Her latest book is "Condor Comeback."

Cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in the U.S., something national security expert Juliette Kayyem described as “deja vu all over again.” The CNN analyst returned to Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, where she weighed in on the surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations throughout the U.S., which are nearing their midsummer peak. "We’re seeing the cycle that we saw in February to March and we saw again in the spring and early summer, which is infections first, then hospitalizations… and then, likely, the death toll,” she said, adding that the situation is “bad, by any stretch of the imagination.” In a moment of optimism, Kayyem said she believes hospitals and supply chains are better prepared this time around. However, she also noted that the situation is muddled by the sheer number of states seeing a rise in cases. "This time around there’s no epicenter, and so where you could’ve focused March in New England, June in Florida and Arizona and Texas, this is now everywhere,” she said. “In the way that one should worry that 50 states are demanding the same thing, this is what worries me." Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened Tuesday’s show by talking with listeners about Monday’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek weighed in on the Patriots’ 2020 slump, Tom Brady’s success playing with Tampa Bay, and the road ahead for televised sports, which’ve seen huge revenue losses during the pandemic. Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett explained the troubling spike in coronavirus cases throughout Massachusetts, talked prevention policy, and responded to questions from listeners. Gergen Barnett is the vice chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and Residency Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School. Satirist P.J. O’Rourke lamented the toxic U.S. political climate and explained why he thinks modern-day rich people are “too comfortable," in a conversation about his new book, “A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land.” Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of GBH’s All Rev’d Up, questioned the impact of recent endorsements for President Trump from Black entertainers. They also discussed Pope Francis’ endorsement of civil unions, and appointment of the first-ever Black U.S. cardinal. CNN’s John King called in for his weekly politics roundup, discussing Monday's appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and offering his take on where President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden stand in the days leading up to the presidential election. Closing out our show, we opened lines to talk with listeners about whether you’re concerned about election-night chaos.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We kicked off the show by opening lines to talk with listeners about the rise of coronavirus cases in the U.S., and ask: does it feel like we’re back in March? David Carroll, Director of the Carter Center’s Democracy Program, talked about his organization’s shift in focus away from international elections and towards U.S. democracy ahead of the November election. Immigration authority Ali Noorani discussed the 545 children who’ve yet to be reunited with their parents after being separated by immigration officials at the U.S. Mexico border, and the human rights groups working to help reunite the families. Chris Dempsey and Jim Aloisi discussed a range of transportation headlines, from news that Gov. Charlie Baker has started riding the MBTA Blue Line in an effort to show that it’s safe, to updates on how the MBTA is mitigating its enormous revenue losses. Dempsey is the Mass. Director of Transportation and former Assistant Secretary of Transportation. Jim Aloisi is former transportation secretary, a member of the Transit Matters board, and contributor to Commonwealth Magazine. TV Expert Bob Thompson talked about the death of streaming service Quibi, and reviewed “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” and the return of “Supermarket Sweep.” Thompson is a professor and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Next, we opened lines to ask: are you planning on giving up holiday traditions this year, or will you be doing everything you can to keep Halloween and Thanksgiving alive? Celtics center and human rights activist Enes Kanter discussed his new campaign to raise awareness about the cruelty of factory farming, and how it was influenced by his time spent alone in the NBA bubble. He also offered a positive update to news from a few months ago about dismal levels of voter registration among players in the NBA.

Immigration expert Ali Noorani joined Boston Public Radio on Monday, offering a rebuke to President Trump’s attempts to pass blame for caging children at the U.S.-Mexico border onto the Obama administration. “Who built the cages, Joe?” Trump asked former Vice President Joe Biden during the September presidential debate. Noorani said that while it’s true that facilities in question were build under President Obama in 2014, their intended purpose was substantially different from their eventual use by the current president. "They were set up as temporary holding facilities for children; unaccompanied minors at that point,” he explained. “The Trump administration took that infrastructure, and weaponized it.” And while the National Immigration Forum CEO admitted his organization has “many concerns” about the immigration policies of former President Obama, he described the Trump administration’s family separation policy as a “moral tragedy,” that’s left 545 children still without their parents. Ali Noorani is the President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration.”