Boston Public Radio

Frank Phillips and Peter Gelzinis think that Bloomberg should strategically use his money to bring down President Trump.

Despite high viewership, the production was not received warmly by critics.

Two Boston artists Keith Maddy and Ed Stitt are quizzed on the week's news.

Todd says a third-party candidate is one of the only real chances Trump has of cracking the electoral college.

The Boston Public Radio contributor expressed excitement for the future of politics in Boston in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

The matter of Buttigieg's sexuality isn't the point of contention for black voters, rather, it is his lack of connection with marginalized communities, the reverends said.

The Boston School Committee decided unanimously to ditch the exam schools admission test for one year due to the challenges presented by administering an exam during a pandemic. The new plan instead will rely on grades, MCAS scores, and ZIP codes to determine eligibility and acceptance. While the School Committee accepted the new plan 7-0, former Education Secretary Paul Reville told Boston Public Radio Thursday it is an imperfect solution to the problem. “It’s not going to go away as a controversy,” said Reville. “This is a flawed plan, but any plan would be flawed in these times. To get a fair calculation of merit in the absence of a tool that applies to all students … to do that in this environment of coronavirus is impossible to do, so they’re settling for the next best thing.” The newly-approved system reserves the first 20 percent of seats at Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O'Bryant School of Mathematics for Boston students with the highest pre-COVID grades in BPS, charter, private and religious schools in the city. The remaining 80 percent would be offered in rounds based on grades in individual zip codes, starting with those zip codes with the lowest median incomes. Paul Reville is former Secretary of Education and a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education where he also runs the Education Redesign Lab. His latest book, co-authored with Elaine Weiss, is “Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty.”

Today on Boston Public Radio: We kicked off the show by opening lines to talk with listeners about Coronavirus and the classroom, and Wednesday’s news that Boston Public Schools will be returning to fully remote learning. Tiffany Faison, chef and owner of Sweet Cheeks, Tiger Mama, Fool’s Errand, and Orfano, checked in to talk about how her restaurants are holding up, seven months into the coronavirus pandemic. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed the 545 migrant children who’ve yet to be reunited with their parents after getting separated by U.S. officials at the U.S. Mexico border. She also weighed in on President Trump’s refusal to tone down rhetoric around Mich. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, despite the recent attempt on her life by a right-wing militia. MassLive reporter Steph Solis broke down Mass. ballot Question 1, concerning the state’s "Right to Repair" law, and talked about the often confusing campaigns for and against it. Medical ethicist Art Caplan ran through the latest coronavirus headlines, including president Trump’s sustained attacks on his own COVID-19 task force advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and new polling showing Americans are increasingly skeptical about a fast-tracked vaccine from the Trump Administration. He also weighed in on a new law, proposed in the Netherlands, that would allow doctors to facilitate the deaths of terminally ill children. Closing out the show, we reopened lines to discuss schooling in the era of COVID with teachers, parents, and students.

Medical ethicist Art Caplan spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s behavior towards a potential COVID-19 vaccine. “Trump has really done severe damage - he’s beaten up the CDC, he’s beaten up the FDA, he’s gone after Fauci, and he definitely has put on the sidelines his own coronavirus task force,” he said. “He’s basically said, ‘I’m going on the anti-science platform.’” Caplan worries about anti-vaxxers, regarding COVID-19. “If we get a vaccine and we don’t get a lot of people taking it then a lot of the impact of the vaccine is gone,” he said. “When people start to say ‘Forget it, I’m not taking a vaccine,’ that’s horrible news for science.” Art Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Joe Biden has blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the alleged domestic terrorist plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Trump tweeted "liberate Michigan" back in April, and this past Saturday joined in on ‘lock her up’ chants, referring to Whitmer, at a rally in Muskegon. Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about Trump’s behavior. “It’s not enough to say that Trump incites violence; he incites a particular kind of violence known as terrorism that’s the use or threatened use of violence for political or social purposes,” she said. “He’s been doing this for years, but the Michigan thing made it take off, and we need to call it terrorism.” Trump incites violence in a particular way, such that he can have plausible deniability, Kayyem noted. “It’s called stochastic terrorism - you can call it random terrorism - which is simply a way of describing how a leader uses his words and platforms to incite his followers in which it’s vague enough that he can have plausible deniability and say it was just a joke,” she said. “But his listeners hear what he’s saying as a calling card.” 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 the show by talking with listeners about the worrying rise of coronavirus cases throughout the U.S. Carol Rose discussed the impact Judge Amy Coney Barrett could have on future Supreme Court rulings around voter rights, and why voter suppression is a real threat, even in liberal Mass. She also talked about abortion rights in the state, and State House legislation that would expand abortion access in the Commonwealth. Rose is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. Larry Calderone responded to a series of to city-wide police reforms being touted by Mayor Walsh, from use of body cameras by officers working overtime, to the establishment of an external Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. Calderone is president of Boston’s Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union. We reopened lines to discuss the new no-strings-attached stipend program for low-income residents in Chelsea, Mass., and hear how getting an extra $200-400 check would impact your life. Jelani Cobb called in to talk about the latest FRONTLINE documentary on voter suppression, called “Whose Vote Counts.” Aside from being the correspondent on the documentary, Cobb is an award-winning journalist, staff writer for the New Yorker, and professor of journalism at Columbia School of Journalism. John King offered a debrief on the latest national political headlines, two weeks away from the November presidential election. King is CNN's Chief National Correspondent and anchor of "Inside Politics,” which airs weekdays and Sunday mornings at 8 a.m.