Just in time to put coal in most Americans stockings, Republicans could pass their tax bill as early as this Wednesday. Was Sen. Marco Rubio’s push to expand the Child Tax Credit enough to save Christmas? Or could Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer deliver a miracle on Capitol Hill by insisting the vote wait until Alabama’s newly-elected senator, Doug Jones, is sworn in? Shannon O'Brien, former state treasurer and Democratic nominee for governor, and Joe Malone, former state treasurer and a Trump supporter, joined us to take on these headlines and more.
Reporting from the New York Times and Politico has uncovered that the Pentagon had a secret program dedicated to investigating the threat of UFOs. The program, which got off the ground in 2007 and was shut down in 2012, was spearheaded by Harry Reid who (with the support of the late Senators Dan Inouye and Ted Stevens) secured $22 million of the defense budget to fund it. We opened up the lines to ask you — are you a believer? Was this was money wasted? Is it worth exploring parts of the universe where questions remain? Would it be better to pour these millions into known threats, like crumbling infrastructure?
As telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon are saying rolling back net neutrality is good for innovation, defenders of net neutrality say it’s just the opposite — that it will prevent the spread of innovative ideas across the world wide web. Among the defenders is the ACLU, which considers the move to repeal net neutrality a blow to freedom of speech. Carol Rose, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, joined us to discuss the fight to restore these open internet protections.
The U.K. is embarking on its second round of Brexit negotiations, while rumors continue to swirl around the fate of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. News Analyst and GroundTruth Project co-founder Charles Sennott joined us for these headlines and more.
Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined us to discuss the moral dilemmas of the day. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African-American Heritage Trail. Price is a professor and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
TV guru Bob Thompson joined us to talk about a big week in entertainment, plus other TV developments.
We opened up the lines for our annual holiday inquiry, asking you what Christmas movies top your list. It’s a topic that has actually divided our own newsroom, with the film "Love Actually" fomenting hostility among our co-workers. We want to know if this topic is as contentious for you among friends, family and colleagues.
